me 

ROOSEVELT 

DOCTRINE 


DUKE 

UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


THE  ROOSEVELT  DOCTRINE 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/rooseveltdoctrin01roos 


COPYRIGHT,  1904,  BY  C.  M.  BELL. 


THE 

ROOSEVELT  DOCTRINE 


BEING  THE  PERSONAL  UTTER- 
ANCES OF  THE  PRESIDENT  ON 
VARIOUS  MATTERS  OF  VITAL 
INTEREST,  AUTHORITATIVELY 
ARRANGED  FOR  REFERENCE 
IN  THEIR  LOGICAL  SEQUENCE 


A Brief  Summary  of  the  Principles  of  American 
Citizenship  and  Government 


Compiled  by 


E.  E.  GARRISON 


New  York 

ROBERT  GRIER  COOKE 
1904 


Copyright,  190 Jj.,  by 
Robert  Grier  Cooke 


FOREWORD 


The  virile  philosophy,  of  which  this  little  book 
is  a compressed  expression,  has  been  called  “ Doc- 
trine,” because,  rising  above  the  plane  of  mere 
political  or  partisan  utterance,  it  presents  a re- 
markable exposition  of  the  duties  and  rights  of 
man  and  government,  and  particularly  of  our  citi- 
zens and  our  government,  from  the  view-point  of 
the  highest  and  broadest  thought  and  feeling. 

It  is  loftier  in  tone,  though  no  less  practical, 
than  the  utterances  of  the  great  Franklin. 

It  is  full  as  lofty  as,  though  far  more  practical 
than,  the  teachings  of  the  great  reformers. 

And  finally  it  comes  as  a gift  to  the  Nation 
and  to  the  world,  bearing  the  moral  sanction  that 
could  alone  proceed  from  its  being  the  product 
of  the  intellect  and  experience  of  one  who  has 
shown  by  a reasonably  long  and  perfectly  con- 
sistent public  career,  that  men  like  ex-Secretary 
Root  and  Senator  Platt  of  Connecticut  have  the 
truth  with  them,  when  they  declare  that  our  Presi- 
dent will  be  placed,  in  History’s  unerring  verdict, 
among  our  great  statesmen. 


Foreword 


The  times  are  fully  in  accord  with  the  energizing 
spirit  of  work  for  the  sake  of  work,  achievement 
for  the  good  of  self  and  others  which  breathes 
through  all  these  utterances.  And  so  generally 
is  their  truthfulness  acknowledged  that  we  need 
make  no  such  effort  as  this  for  their  wider  dissemi- 
nation, but  for  the  sake  of  some  who  misunderstand, 
some  who  have  had  no  time  to  post  themselves  more 
fully,  and  a few  who  maliciously  mistake,  and  care- 
lessly misquote  one  who  is  known,  even  better 
abroad  than  at  home,  as  the  foremost  leader  of 
modern  thought  revolution — the  revolution  of  con- 
structive criticism  of  self  rather  than  of  destructive 
criticism  of  other  men  and  institutions. 

There  is  place  for  only  one  regret  in  presenting 
this  little  volume — that  its  limitations  of  size  pre- 
vent the  appearance  of  much  that  is  as  worthy  as 
anything  that  has  been  included. 

Brief  as  it  is,  its  thoughtful  perusal  cannot,  in 
any  case,  fail  of  producing  a clearer  grasp  of  the 
questions  of  the  time,  and  a higher  conception  of 
citizenship.  May  many  thousands  derive  from  the 
reading  the  benefit  that  I have  gained  from  the 
work  of  compilation. 

E.  E.  G. 

June,  1904. 


VI 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Roosevelt — Man  and  President,  from  Dr.  Al- 
bert Shaw’s  introduction  to  the  published 
volumes  of  Speeches  and  State  Papers  . . 1 

The  Presidency,  Mr.  Roosevelt’s  views  of  the 
position  and  its  responsibilities,  written 
while  he  was  still  Governor  of  New  York 
State 10 

Purpose  in  Office 26 

Present  Problems — Our  attitude  toward  them  . 27 

President  McKinley 30 

Anarchy 32 

Immigration  Laws 35 

Citizenship 37 

Trusts — Capital — Labor — Corporations,  Etc.  . 43 

Anti-Trust  Actions 60 

v/Panama  Canal 70 

Cuba I ...  77 

Philippines 78 

vii 

SRI 


Contents 


PAGE 

Lynching 88 

General  Wood 90 

Tariff 93 

Navy 101 

Merchant  Marine 112 

Army — Militia 114 

Civil  War  Veterans 123 

Civil  Service 125 

Foreign  Policy 127 

Monroe  Docti'ine 129 

War 132 

Consular  Service 133 

Agriculture 134 

Irrigation 136 

Forestry 146 

Currency — Money 153 

Banking  Laws 164 

Economy 165 

Miscellaneous 166 

viii 


ROOSEVELT— MAN  AND 
PRESIDENT 

From  Dr.  Albert  Shaw's  Introduction  to  the  Published  Speeches . 

IT  is  to  be  noted  that  these  addresses  are 
patriotic  rather  than  partisan,  and  that  where 
they  deal  with  matters  of  controversy  they  show 
a spirit  as  little  contentious  or  polemic  as  possible. 
While  the  President  believes  in  the  utility  of  the 
party  system,  he  speaks  always  as  President 
of  the  whole  country  and  not  merely  as  the  chief 
of  a party.  His  speeches,  in  short,  are  the  utter- 
ances of  a man  who  embodies  the  national  spirit 
more  broadly  and  fully  than  almost  any  other  man 
of  his  day ; and  he  expresses  himself  upon  a wide 
range  of  topics  with  a larger  fund  of  experience 
and  direct  knowledge  than  is  possessed  by  any  other 
conspicuous  public  man  of  either  party. 

It  is  only  through  some  understanding  of  the 
career  that  led  up  to  his  assumption  of  the  Presi- 
dency that  the  richness,  the  fulness,  and  the  au- 
thoritative quality  of  his  observations  on  many 
varied  themes  can  be  appreciated.  Mr.  Roosevelt’s 
life  has,  amid  much  variety,  possessed  great  unity. 

1 


Roosevelt 


While  still  in  college  at  Harvard,  his  mind  became 
centred  upon  the  study  of  American  life,  Ameri- 
can history,  and  American  government  and  policy. 
Whatever  he  undertook  after  leaving  college  added 
steadily  to  his  understanding  of  the  people  of  his 
own  country  and  their  institutions.  Almost  at 
once  he  threw  himself  into  the  politics  of  the  great 
State  of  New  York,  served  several  terms  in  the 
Legislature,  and  made  himself  known  throughout 
the  country  by  the  vigor  and  courage  with  which 
he  applied  himself  to  current  problems  of  State 
and  municipal  reform.  At  a time  when  the  so- 
called  “spoils  system”  was  powerfully  rooted  in 
the  practical  government  of  nation,  State,  and 
city,  he  became  a civil  service  reformer. 

Everything  that  was  worth  while  was  of  interest 
to  him,  and  everything  that  he  undertook  to  do  was 
done  whole-heartedly  and  thus  made  its  contribu- 
tion to  his  own  development.  He  was  an  officer  in 
the  militia,  and  learned  lessons  which  became,  years 
afterward,  valuable  to  him  as  a colonel  in  the  Span- 
ish-American  War  and  later  as  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army  by  virtue  of  the  Presidential  office. 

Meanwhile  his  first  literary  undertaking  was  the 
history  of  the  Naval  War  of  1812,  which  appeared 
in  1882,  and  which  will  always  remain  a vital  and  a 

2 


Roosevelt 


standard  account  of  our  last  war  with  Great 
Britain,  especially  from  the  stand-point  of  naval 
strategy  and  actual  operations.  Whether  taking 
part  himself  in  the  current  life  of  his  country  and 
in  the  making  of  its  history,  or  whether  studying 
or  writing  about  the  part  that  others  have  taken 
in  the  development  of  the  nation,  there  has  been  on 
Mr.  Roosevelt’s  part  always  a singleness  of  pur- 
pose and  a harmony  of  effort.  Thus,  when  he 
wrote  about  the  War  of  1812,  as  when  in  later 
years  he  wrote  the  graphic  yet  accurate  and  well- 
poised  studies  of  those  Western  movements,  military 
and  civil,  that  created  the  Mississippi  Valley  ( com- 
prised in  the  series  of  volumes  entitled  “The  Win- 
ning of  the  West,”  there  was  on  his  part,  just  as 
much  a sense  of  dealing  with  realities  as  when  in 
1899  he  wrote  out  the  story  of  the  part  played 
by  his  regiment  of  Rough  Riders  in  the  Spanish- 
American  War  of  the  year  before. 

The  circumstances  which  took  him  to  the  West 
in  1884  to  become  for  some  years  a cattle  ranch- 
man, a resident  of  the  Great  Plains,  and  an  ex- 
ponent of  hunting  and  frontier  life,  involved  in  no 
manner  an  interruption  of  the  career  upon  which 
he  had  made  so  propitious  an  entrance.  On  the 
contrary,  this  was  the  best  possible  step  that  could 

3 


Roosevelt 


have  been  taken  for  the  rounding  out  and  develop- 
ment of  the  career  of  a man  destined,  either  in 
letters  or  in  action,  to  spend  his  life  in  dealing  with 
American  affairs  from  a broad  stand-point. 

Many  of  the  most  marked  traits  of  the  American 
people  have  been  evolved  through  the  process  of 
pioneering.  For  three  centuries  our  people  have 
been  engaged  in  subduing  a continent  that  they 
had  found  a pathless  wilderness.  No  man  who  has 
lacked  contact  with  some  concrete  phases  of  our 
pioneering  life  can  ever  wholly  enter  into  the  spirit 
of  the  nation’s  historical  development,  or  perfectly 
understand  the  inherited  qualities  of  our  present- 
day  citizenship.  Mr.  Roosevelt’s  Western  life  sup- 
plied that  needful  element  of  understanding,  while 
it  gave  him  physical  hardihood  and  a continental 
breadth  of  view.  It  gave  him,  furthermore,  that 
traditional  American  readiness  with  a horse  and 
a gun,  and  that  adaptability  to  the  free  life  of 
field  and  of  woods  which  is  the  heritage  of  the 
average  young  American,  and  which  made  the 
greater  part  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  armies 
in  the  Civil  War  so  unequalled,  for  effectiveness,  in 
all  military  history. 

Through  these  years  of  practical  life  in  the  West 
Mr.  Roosevelt  never  lost  the  studious  and  literary 

4 


Roosevelt 


habit,  nor  did  he  lose  any  of  his  zest  for  the  public 
affairs  of  the  country.  In  due  time  he  returned 
to  the  East,  took  an  active  part  in  New  York  poli- 
tics again,  and  was  nominated  for  Mayor.  Then 
he  went  to  Washington,  where  for  a number  of 
years  he  served  as  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Civil 
Service  Commissioners  and  became  an  expert  in  the 
field  of  national  administration.  After  that  came 
his  two  years  as  President  of  the  Police  Commis- 
sioners of  New  York  City — a truly  strenuous 
period  that  tested  every  quality  of  his  mind  and 
character.  The  navy  had  been  at  low  ebb  when 
Mr.  Roosevelt  in  1882  wrote  his  “Naval  War  of 
1812,”  and  that  book  fairly  contributed  toward 
the  revival  of  interest  which  soon  set  on  foot  the 
movement  for  the  creation  of  our  modern  fleet. 
The  author  of  that  book  had  ever  afterward  been 
regarded  both  at  home  and  abroad  as  an  expert 
student  of  naval  history  and  of  sea  power,  and  he 
had  retained  an  enthusiastic  interest  in  the  whole 
subject.  He  was  well  fitted,  therefore,  for  the  post 
of  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  to  which  Presi- 
dent McKinley  appointed  him  at  the  very  time 
when,  more  clearly  than  most  others,  he  foresaw 
the  probability  of  a war  with  Spain. 

He  threw  his  whole  intense  energy  into  the  work 
5 


Roosevelt 


of  fitting  our  navy  for  such  a test,  devoting  him- 
self especially  to  the  questions  of  readiness  and 
efficiency  in  practical  detail.  And  then  came  the 
outbreak  of  war.  With  the  feeling  that  he  was 
no  longer  needed  in  the  naval  department,  and 
that  it  was  his  duty  to  respond  to  the  call  for 
volunteer  soldiers,  he  entered  the  army.  The  his- 
tory of  that  service  he  has  himself  told  in  a fasci- 
nating way  in  the  volume  entitled  “The  Rough 
Riders,”  included  in  this  edition  of  his  works. 

The  war  being  ended,  he  returned  to  his  own 
State  of  New  York  at  a moment  when  his  party  was 
casting  about  for  a candidate  for  Governor.  The 
outlook  was  not  propitious ; but  Mr.  Roosevelt’s 
recent  career  had  given  him  a great  personal  popu- 
larity, and  he  was  accordingly  nominated  and 
elected.  Great  questions  of  administration  are  al- 
ways pending  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  there 
are  few  governmental  offices  in  any  country  better 
adapted  to  train  the  incumbent  for  the  tasks  of 
practical  statesmanship.  Mr.  Roosevelt  took  up  the 
work  of  the  Governorship  with  characteristic  indus- 
try, and  with  results  that  were  successful  and  valu- 
able in  many  directions.  So  well  had  he  satisfied 
the  expectations  of  his  party  and  of  the  State  that 
his  renomination  as  Governor  was  assured ; and  the 

6 


Roosevelt 


whole  country  had  its  attention  fixed  upon  him  as 
the  probable  nominee  of  his  party  for  the  Presi- 
dency in  the  year  1904. 

A variety  of  circumstances,  however,  most  of 
them  unexpected  and  some  of  them  dramatic,  led 
to  an  overwhelming  demand  by  the  Republican 
National  Convention  at  Philadelphia  in  1900  that 
he  forego  his  prospect  of  a second  term  as  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York  in  order  to  take  the  nomination 
for  the  Vice-Presidency  on  the  ticket  with  Mr. 
McKinley.  He  was  put  forward  by  his  party  in 
that  summer  of  1900  as  its  most  effective  cam- 
paigner. The  tragic  death  of  President  McKinley, 
in  September,  1901,  occurred  only  six  months  after 
his  entrance  upon  a’  second  term,  and  thus  it  hap- 
pened that  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  only  a short  time 
to  serve  in  the  office  of  Vice-President. 

So  remarkable  and  so  rapid  a succession  of  valu- 
able public  experiences,  all  of  a kind  to  give  train- 
ing for  the  duties  of  the  Presidency,  is  probably 
unparalleled  in  our  history.  He  had  been  the  chief 
Civil  Service  Commissioner  of  this  great  nation, 
the  head  of  the  police  administration  of  our  chief 
metropolis,  the  active  official  of  the  naval  depart- 
ment, the  most  energetic  volunteer  officer  in  the 
Spanish- American  War, the  Governor  of  NewYork, 

7 


Roosevelt 


and  the  Vice-President  of  the  United  States ; and 
the  man  who  had  succeeded  brilliantly  in  all  these 
positions,  and  who  had  treated  every  one  of  them 
in  turn  as  if  it  furnished  the  one  great  opportunity 
for  rendering  public  service,  could  but  bring  to 
the  Presidency  an  accumulated  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience that  would  make  itself  felt  in  every  part 
of  the  work  of  that  supreme  office. 

It  is  this  wide  range  of  experience  and  knowl- 
edge that  has  given  Mr.  Roosevelt  the  easy  mastery 
of  many  subjects  which  he  has  exhibited  in  his 
addresses  and  public  papers ; and,  further,  it  is 
these  speeches  and  messages,  far  more  than  any- 
thing else,  that  exhibit  him  in  his  capacity  as  a 
practical  statesman  and  that  afford  the  unconscious 
but  inevitable  expression  of  the  man  himself  in 
his  relation  to  public  affairs.  All  his  accumulated 
experience  has  so  built  itself  into  the  man  that  it 
finds  a natural  outlet  in  these  varied  and  spon- 
taneous utterances  on  many  themes. 

To  sum  up  and  to  conclude:  These  addresses 
reveal  the  unity  and  consistency  of  President  Roose- 
velt’s character  and  career.  He  is  indeed  a many- 
sided  and  versatile  man,  but  there  is  nothing 
mutually  contradictory  about  the  different  phases 
of  his  nature  or  of  his  past  undertakings.  His 

8 


Roosevelt 


vital  Americanism  is  shown  equally  in  his  historical 
studies  of  the  pioneer  movement  that  built  up  our 
great  West  and  in  his  accounts  of  ranching  life 
and  his  studies  of  the  big  game  of  America.  In 
his  varied  literary  work,  as  in  his  other  efforts  and 
activities,  there  is  little  or  nothing  of  an  incidental 
or  dilettante  nature;  all  of  it  is  the  frank  expres- 
sion of  the  man  himself.  The  book  on  the  War  of 
1812  was  written  when  he  was  still  very  young. 
It  might  well  have  proved  to  be  the  merely  boyish 
effort  of  a young  man  who  had  said  to  himself, 
“Lo,  I will  go  to  work  and  write  a book !”  But,  on 
the  contrary,  it  was  in  fact  the  outgrowth  of  vital 
interest  and  of  strong  conviction  regarding  his 
subject;  and  so  the  book  lives  and  will  continue  to 
live.  Thus  all  of  his  work  for  about  a quarter  of  a 
century,  whether  literary  in  its  character  or  active 
and  official,  has  been  done  in  the  same  direct, 
straightforward  way  as  simply  pertaining  to  the 
task  in  hand ; and  the  task,  whether  great  or  small, 
has  always  been  deemed  worthy  of  the  whole  vital 
energy  of  the  man. 


9 


THE  PRESIDENCY 


This  article  was  written  expressly  for  “ The  Youth's  Com- 
panion," and  is  reprinted  by  courtesy  of  that  publication. 
Copyright,  1902,  by  Perry  Mason  Company. 

THE  President  of  the  United  States  occupies  a 
position  of  peculiar  importance.  In  the 
whole  world  there  is  probably  no  other  ruler,  cer- 
tainly no  other  ruler  under  free  institutions,  whose 
power  compares  with  his.  Of  course  a despotic 
king  has  even  more,  but  no  constitutional  monarch 
has  as  much. 

In  the  republics  of  France  and  Switzerland  the 
President  is  not  a very  important  officer,  at  least, 
compared  with  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
In  England  the  sovereign  has  much  less  control  in 
shaping  the  policy  of  the  nation,  the  Prime  Min- 
ister occupying  a position  more  nearly  analogous 
to  that  of  our  President.  The  Prime  Minister, 
however,  can  at  any  time  be  thrown  out  of  office 
by  an  adverse  vote,  while  the  President  can  only 
be  removed  before  his  term  is  out  for  some  ex- 


10 


The  Presidency 

traordinary  crime  or  misdemeanor  against  the 
nation. 

Of  course,  in  the  case  of  each  there  is  the  enor- 
mous personal  factor  of  the  incumbent  himself  to 
be  considered,  entirely  apart  from  the  power  of 
the  office  itself.  The  power  wielded  by  Andrew 
Jackson  was  out  of  all  proportion  to  that  wielded 
by  Buchanan,  although  in  theory  each  was  alike. 
So  a strong  President  may  exert  infinitely  more 
influence  than  a weak  Prime  Minister,  or  vice  versa. 
But  this  is  merely  another  way  of  stating  that  in 
any  office  the  personal  equation  is  always  of  vital 
consequence. 

It  is  customary  to  speak  of  the  framers  of  our 
Constitution  as  having  separated  the  judicial,  the 
legislative,  and  the  executive  functions  of  the  gov- 
ernment. The  separation,  however,  is  not  in  all 
respects  sharply  defined.  The  President  has  cer- 
tainly most  important  legislative  functions,  and  the 
upper  branch  of  the  national  legislature  shares 
with  the  President  one  of  the  most  important  of  his 
executive  functions ; that  is,  the  President  can 
either  sign  or  veto  the  bills  passed  by  Congress, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Senate  confirms  or 
rejects  his  nominations.  Of  course  the  President 
cannot  initiate  legislation,  although  he  can  recom- 
11 


The  Presidency 

mend  it.  But  unless  two-thirds  of  Congress  in 
both  branches  are  hostile  to  him,  he  can  stop  any 
measure  from  becoming  a law.  This  power  is 
varyingly  used  by  different  Presidents,  but  it 
always  exists,  and  must  always  be  reckoned  with  by 
Congress. 

While  Congress  is  in  session,  if  the  President 
neither  signs  nor  vetoes  the  bill  which  is  passed, 
the  bill  becomes  a law  without  his  signature.  The 
effect  is  precisely  the  same  as  if  he  had  signed  it. 
Presidents  who  disapproved  of  details  in  a bill,  but 
felt  that  on  the  whole  it  was  advisable  it  should 
become  a law,  have  at  times  used  this  method  to 
emphasize  the  fact  that  they  were  not  satisfied 
with  the  measure  which  they  were  yet  unwilling  to 
veto.  A notable  instance  was  afforded  in  President 
Cleveland’s  second  term,  when  he  thus  treated  the 
Wilson-Gorman  tariff  bill. 

The  immense  federal  service,  including  all  the 
postal  employees,  all  the  customs  employees,  all  the 
Indian  agents,  marshals,  district  attorneys,  navy- 
yard  employees,  and  so  forth,  is  under  the  Presi- 
dent. It  would  of  course  be  a physical  impossibility 
for  him  to  appoint  all  the  individuals  in  the  ser- 
vice. His  direct  power  lies  over  the  heads  of  the 
departments,  bureaus,  and  more  important  offices. 

12 


The  Presidency 

But  he  does  not  appoint  these  by  himself.  His  is 
only  the  nominating  power.  It  rests  with  the 
Senate  to  confirm  or  reject  the  nominations. 

The  Senators  are  the  constitutional  advisers  of 
the  President,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  his 
Cabinet  is  not  in  the  least  like  the  Cabinet  of  which 
the  Prime  Minister  is  head  in  the  English  Parlia- 
ment. Under  our  government  the  Secretaries  who 
form  the  Cabinet  are  in  the  strictest  sense  the 
President’s  own  ministerial  appointees ; the  men, 
chosen  out  of  all  the  nation,  to  whom  he  thinks  he 
can  best  depute  the  most  important  and  laborious 
of  his  executive  duties.  Of  course  they  all  advise 
him  on  matters  of  general  policy  when  he  so  desires 
it,  and  in  practice  each  Cabinet  officer  has  a very 
free  hand  in  managing  his  own  department,  and 
must  have  it  if  he  is  to  do  good  work.  But  all  this 
advice  and  consultation  is  at  the  will  of  the  Presi- 
dent. With  the  Senate,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
advice  and  consultation  are  obligatory  under  the 
Constitution. 

The  President  and  Congress  are  mutually  neces- 
sary to  one  another  in  matters  of  legislation,  and 
the  President  and  the  Senate  are  mutually  neces- 
sary in  matters  of  appointment.  Every  now  and 
then  men  who  understand  our  Constitution  but 


13 


The  Presidency 

imperfectly  raise  an  outcry  against  the  President 
for  consulting  the  Senators  in  matters  of  appoint- 
ment, and  even  talk  about  the  Senators  “usurping” 
his  functions.  These  men  labor  under  a misappre- 
hension. The  Senate  has  no  right  to  dictate  to 
the  President  who  shall  be  appointed,  but  they 
have  an  entire  right  to  say  who  shall  not  be  ap- 
pointed, for  under  the  Constitution  this  has  been 
made  their  duty. 

In  practice,  under  our  party  system,  it  has  come 
to  be  recognized  that  each  Senator  has  a special 
right  to  be  consulted  about  the  appointments  in  his 
own  State,  if  he  is  of  the  President’s  political 
party.  Often  the  opponents  of  the  Senator  in  his 
State  do  not  agree  with  him  in  the  matter  of  ap- 
pointments, and  sometimes  the  President,  in  the 
exercise  of  his  judgment,  finds  it  right  and  desir- 
able to  disregard  the  Senator.  But  the  President 
and  the  Senators  must  work  together,  if  they 
desire  to  secure  the  best  results. 

But  although  many  men  must  share  with  the 
President  the  responsibility  for  different  individual 
actions,  and  although  Congress  must  of  course  also 
very  largely  condition  his  usefulness,  yet  the  fact 
remains  that  in  his  hands  is  infinitely  more  power 
than  in  the  hands  of  any  other  man  in  our  country 
14) 


The  Presidency 

during  the  time  that  he  holds  the  office ; that  there 
is  upon  him  always  a heavy  burden  of  responsi- 
bility ; and  that  in  certain  crises  this  burden  may 
become  so  great  as  to  bear  down  any  but  the 
strongest  and  bravest  man. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  give  a bad  administration ; 
but  to  give  a good  administration  demands  the 
most  anxious  thought,  the  most  wearing  endeavor, 
no  less  than  very  unusual  powers  of  mind.  The 
chances  for  error  are  limitless,  and  in  minor  mat- 
ters, where  from  the  nature  of  the  case  it  is  abso- 
lutely inevitable  that  the  President  should  rely 
upon  the  judgment  of  others,  it  is  certain  that 
under  the  best  Presidents  some  errors  will  be  com- 
mitted. The  severest  critics  of  a President’s  policy 
are  apt  to  be,  not  those  who  know  most  about  what 
is  to  be  done  and  of  the  limitations  under  which  it 
must  be  done,  but  those  wffio  know  least. 

In  the  aggregate,  quite  as  much  wrong  is  com- 
mitted by  improper  denunciation  of  public  servants 
who  do  well  as  by  failure  to  attack  those  who  do 
ill.  There  is  every  reason  why  the  President,  who- 
ever he  may  be  and  to  whatever  party  he  may 
belong,  should  be  held  to  a sharp  accountability 
alike  for  what  he  does  and  for  what  he  leaves 
undone.  But  we  injure  ourselves  and  the  nation 
15 


The  Presidency 

if  we  fail  to  treat  with  proper  respect  the  man, 
whether  he  is  politically  opposed  to  us  or  not,  who 
in  the  highest  office  in  our  land  is  striving  to  do 
his  duty  according  to  the  strength  that  is  in  him. 

We  have  had  Presidents  who  have  acted  very 
weakly  or  unwisely  in  particular  crises.  We  have 
had  Presidents  the  sum  of  whose  work  has  not  been 
to  the  advantage  of  the  Republic.  But  we  have 
never  had  one  concerning  whose  personal  integrity 
there  was  so  much  as  a shadow  of  a suspicion,  or 
who  has  not  been  animated  by  an  earnest  desire 
to  do  the  best  possible  work  that  he  could  for  the 
people  at  large.  Of  course  infirmity  of  purpose  or 
wrong-headedness  may  mar  this  integrity  and  sin- 
cerity of  intention ; but  the  integrity  and  the  good 
intentions  have  always  existed.  We  have  never 
had  in  the  Presidential  chair  any  man  who  did  not 
sincerely  desire  to  benefit  the  people  and  whose  own 
personal  ambitions  were  not  entirely  honorable, 
although  as  much  cannot  be  said  for  certain 
aspirants  for  the  place,  such  as  Aaron  Burr. 

Corruption,  in  the  gross  sense  in  which  the  word 
is  used  in  ordinary  conversation,  has  been  abso- 
lutely unknown  among  our  Presidents,  and  it  has 
been  exceedingly  rare  in  our  Presidents’  Cabinets. 
Inefficiency,  whether  due  to  lack  of  will-power, 
16 


The  Presidency 

sheer  deficiency  in  wisdom,  or  improper  yielding 
either  to  the  pressure  of  politicians  or  to  the  other 
kinds  of  pressure  which  must  often  be  found  even 
in  a free  democracy,  has  been  far  less  uncommon. 
Of  deliberate  moral  obliquity  there  has  been  but 
very  little  indeed. 

In  the  easiest,  quietest,  most  peaceful  times  the 
President  is  sure  to  have  great  tasks  before  him. 
The  simple  question  of  revenue  and  expenditure 
is  as  important  to  the  nation  as  it  is  to  the  average 
household,  and  the  President  is  the  man  to  whom 
the  nation  looks  and  whom  it  holds  accountable  in 
the  matter  both  of  expenditui’e  and  of  revenue.  It 
is  an  entirely  mistaken  belief  that  the  expenditure 
of  money  is  simply  due  to  a taste  for  recklessness 
and  extravagance  on  the  part  of  the  people’s  rep- 
resentatives. 

The  representatives  in  the  long  run  are  sure  to 
try  to  do  what  the  people  effectively  want.  The 
trouble  is  that  although  each  group  has,  and  all  the 
groups  taken  together  still  more  strongly  have,  an 
interest  in  keeping  the  expenditures  down,  each 
group  has  also  a direct  interest  in  keeping  some 
particular  expenditure  up.  This  expenditure  is 
usually  entirely  proper  and  desirable,  save  only 
that  the  aggregate  of  all  such  expenditures  may 
17 


The  Presidency 

be  so  great  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  nation 
to  go  into  them. 

It  is  a great  deal  the  same  thing  in  the  nation 
as  it  is  in  a State.  The  demand  may  be  for  a 
consumptive  hospital,  or  for  pensions  to  veterans, 
or  for  a public  building,  or  for  an  armory,  or  for 
cleaning  out  a harbor,  or  for  starting  irrigation. 
In  each  case  the  demand  may  be  in  itself  entirely 
proper,  and  those  interested  in  it,  from  whatever 
motives,  may  be  both  sincere  and  strenuous  in  their 
advocacy.  But  the  President  has  to  do  on  a large 
scale  what  every  Governor  of  a State  has  to  do  on 
a small  scale,  that  is,  balance  the  demands  on  the 
Treasury  with  the  capacities  of  the  Treasury. 

Whichever  way  he  decides,  some  people  are  sure 
to  think  that  he  has  tipped  the  scale  the  wrong 
way,  and  from  their  point  of  view  they  may  con- 
scientiously think  it;  whereas  from  his  point  of 
view  he  may  know  with  equal  conscientiousness  that 
he  has  done  his  best  to  strike  an  average  which 
would  on  the  one  hand  not  be  niggardly  toward 
worthy  objects,  and  on  the  other  would  not  lay 
too  heavy  a burden  of  taxation  upon  the  people. 

Inasmuch  as  these  particular  questions  have  to 
be  met  every  year  in  connection  with  every  session 
of  Congress  and  with  the  work  of  every  depart- 
18 


The  Presidency 

ment,  it  may  readily  be  seen  that  even  the  Presi- 
dent’s every-day  responsibilities  are  of  no  light 
order.  So  it  is  with  his  appointments.  Entirely 
apart  from  the  fact  that  there  is  a great  pressure 
for  place,  it  is  also  the  fact  that  in  all  the  higher 
and  more  important  appointments  there  are  usu- 
ally conflicting  interests  which  must  somehow  be 
reconciled  to  the  best  of  the  President’s  capacity. 

Here  again  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
matter  is  not  always  by  any  means  one  of  merely 
what  we  call  politics.  Where  there  is  a really  seri- 
ous conflict  in  reference  to  an  appointment,  while 
it  may  be  merely  a factional  fight,  it  is  more  apt 
to  be  because  two  groups  of  the  President’s  sup- 
porters differ  radically  and  honestly  on  some  ques- 
tion of  policy ; so  that  whatever  the  President’s 
decision  may  be,  he  cannot  help  arousing  dissatis- 
faction. 

One  thing  to  be  remembered  is  that  appointments 
and  policies  which  are  normally  routine  and  unim- 
portant may  suddenly  become  of  absolutely  vital 
consequence.  For  instance,  the  War  Department 
was  utterly  neglected  for  over  thirty  years  after 
the  Civil  War.  This  neglect  was  due  less  to  the 
successive  Presidents  than  to  Congress,  and  in 
Congress  it  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  people 
19 


The  Presidency 

themselves  did  not  take  an  interest  in  the  army. 
Neither  the  regular  officer  nor  the  regular  soldier 
takes  any  part  in  politics  as  a rule,  so  that  the 
demagogue  and  the  bread-and-butter  politician 
have  no  fear  of  his  vote ; and  to  both  of  them,  and 
also  to  the  cheap  sensational  newspaper,  the  army 
offers  a favorite  subject  for  attack.  So  it  often 
happens  that  some  amiable  people  really  get  a little 
afraid  of  the  army,  and  have  some  idea  that  it  may 
be  used  some  time  or  other  against  our  liberties. 

The  army  never  has  been  and,  I am  sure,  it 
never  will  be  or  can  be  a menace  to  anybody  save 
America’s  foes,  or  aught  but  a source  of  pride  to 
every  good  and  far-sighted  American.  But  it  is 
only  in  time  of  actual  danger  that  such  facts  are 
brought  home  vividly  to  the  minds  of  our  poeple, 
and  so  the  army  is  apt  to  receive  far  less  than  its 
proper  share  of  attention.  But  when  an  emergency 
like  that  caused  by  the  Spanish  War  arises,  then 
the  Secretary  of  War  becomes  the  most  important 
officer  in  the  Cabinet,  and  the  army  steps  into  the 
place  of  foremost  interest  in  all  the  country. 

It  is  only  once  in  a generation  that  such  a crisis 
as  the  Spanish  War  or  the  Mexican  War  or  the 
War  of  1812  has  to  be  confronted,  but  in  almost 
every  administration  lesser  crises  do  arise.  They 
20 


The  Presidency 

may  be  in  connection  with  foreign  affairs,  as  was 
the  case  with  the  Chilian  trouble  under  President 
Harrison’s  administration,  the  Venezuelan  matter 
in  President  Cleveland’s  second  term,  or  the  Boxer 
uprising  in  China  last  year.  Much  more  often  they 
relate  to  domestic  affairs,  as  in  the  case  of  a disas- 
trous panic,  which  produces  terrible  social  and 
industrial  convulsions.  Whatever  the  problem  may 
be,  the  President  has  got  to  meet  it  and  to  work  out 
some  kind  of  a solution.  In  midwinter  or  mid- 
summer, with  Congress  sitting  or  absent,  the  Presi- 
dent has  always  to  be  ready  to  devote  every  waking 
hour  to  some  anxious,  worrying,  harassing  matter, 
most  difficult  to  decide,  and  yet  which  it  is  imper- 
ative immediately  to  decide. 

An  immense  addition  to  the  President’s  burden 
is  caused  by  the  entirely  well-meaning  people  who 
ask  him  to  do  what  he  cannot  possibly  do.  For 
the  first  few  weeks  after  the  inauguration  a new 
President  may  receive  on  an  average  fifteen  hun- 
dred letters  a day.  His  mail  is  so  enormous  that 
often  he  cannot  read  one  letter  in  a hundred,  and 
rarely  can  he  read  one  letter  in  ten.  Even  his 
private  secretary  can  read  only  a small  fraction  of 
the  mail.  Often  there  are  letters  which  the  Presi- 
dent would  really  be  glad  to  see,  but  which  are 
21 


The  Presidency 

swamped  in  the  great  mass  of  demands  for  office, 
demands  for  pensions,  notes  of  warning  or  advice, 
demands  for  charity,  and  requests  of  every  con- 
ceivable character,  not  to  speak  of  the  letters  from 
“cranks,”  which  are  always  numerous  in  the  Presi- 
dent’s mail. 

One  President,  who  was  very  anxious  to  help 
people  whenever  he  could,  made  the  statement  that 
the  requests  for  pecuniary  aid  received  in  a single 
fortnight  would,  if  complied  with,  have  eaten  up 
considerably  more  than  his  entire  year’s  salary. 
The  requests  themselves  are  frequently  such  as  the 
President  would  like  to  comply  with  if  there  was 
any  way  of  making  a discrimination ; but  there  is 
none. 

One  rather  sad  feature  of  the  life  of  a President 
is  the  difficulty  of  making  friends,  because  almost 
inevitably  after  awhile  the  friend  thinks  there  is 
some  office  he  would  like,  applies  for  it,  and  when 
the  President  is  obliged  to  refuse,  feels  that  he  has 
been  injured.  Those  who  were  closest  to  Abraham 
Lincoln  have  said  that  this  wTas  one  of  the  things 
which  concerned  him  most  in  connection  with  his 
administration.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  allude  to 
the  well-known  fact  that  no  President  can  gratify 
a hundredth  part  of  the  requests  and  demands 
22 


The  Presidency 

made  upon  him  for  office,  often  by  men  who  have 
rendered  him  real  services  and  who  are  fit  to  fill 
the  position  they  seek,  but  not  so  fit  as  somebody 
else.  Of  course  the  man  does  not  realize  that  his 
successful  rival  was  appointed  because  he  really 
was  more  fit,  and  he  goes  away  sour  and  imbittered 
because  of  what  he  feels  to  be  the  President’s 
ingratitude. 

Perhaps  the  two  most  striking  things  in  the 
Presidency  are  the  immense  power  of  the  President, 
in  the  first  place ; and  in  the  second  place,  the  fact 
that  as  soon  as  he  has  ceased  being  President  he 
goes  right  back  into  the  body  of  the  people  and 
becomes  just  like  any  other  American  citizen. 
While  he  is  in  office  he  is  one  of  the  half-dozen 
persons  throughout  the  whole  world  who  have  most 
power  to  affect  the  destinies  of  the  world. 

He  can  set  fleets  and  armies  in  motion ; he  can 
do  more  than  any  save  one  or  two  absolute  sov- 
ereigns to  affect  the  domestic  welfare  and  happi- 
ness of  scores  of  millions  of  people.  Then  when 
he  goes  out  of  office  he  takes  up  his  regular  round 
of  duties  like  any  other  citizen,  or  if  he  is  of  ad- 
vanced age  retires  from  active  life  to  rest,  like  any 
other  man  who  has  worked  hard  to  earn  his  rest. 

One  President,  John  Quincy  Adams,  after  leav- 

23 


The  Presidency 

ing  the  Presidency,  again  entered  public  life  as  a 
Congressman,  and  achieved  conspicuous  successes  in 
the  Lower  House.  This,  however,  is  a unique  case. 
Many  Presidents  have  followed  the  examples  of 
Jefferson  and  Jackson,  and  retired,  as  these  two 
men  retired  to  Monticello  and  The  Hermitage. 
Others  have  gone  into  more  or  less  active  work,  as 
practising  lawyers  or  as  lecturers  on  law,  or  in 
business,  or  in  some  form  of  philanthropy. 

During  the  President’s  actual  incumbency  of 
his  office  the  tendency  is  perhaps  to  exaggerate  not 
only  his  virtues  but  his  faults.  When  he  goes  out 
he  is  simply  one  of  the  ordinary  citizens,  and  per- 
haps for  a time  the  importance  of  the  role  he  has 
played  is  not  recognized.  True  perspective  is 
rarely  gained  until  years  have  gone  by. 

Altogether,  there  are  few  harder  tasks  than  that 
of  filling  well  and  ably  the  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  labor  is  immense,  the  ceaseless 
worry  and  harassing  anxiety  are  beyond  descrip- 
tion. But  if  the  man  at  the  close  of  his  term  is 
able  to  feel  that  he  has  done  his  duty  well ; that  he 
has  solved  after  the  best  fashion  of  which  they 
were  capable  the  great  problems  with  which  he  was 
confronted,  and  has  kept  clean  and  in  good  run- 
ning order  the  governmental  machinery  of  the 
U 


The  Presidency 

mighty  Republic,  he  has  the  satisfaction  of  feeling 
that  he  has  performed  one  of  the  great  world- 
tasks,  and  that  the  mere  performance  is  in  itself 
the  greatest  of  all  possible  rewards. 


25 


PURPOSE  IN  OFFICE 


HILE  there  are  occasions  when  through  leg- 


» » islative  or  administrative  action  the  govern- 
mental representatives  of  the  people  caji  do  espe- 
cial service  to  one  set  of  our  citizens,  yet  I think  you 
will  agree  with  me  that  in  the  long  run  the  best  way 
in  which  to  serve  any  one  set  of  our  citizens  is  to 
try  to  serve  all  alike  well,  to  try  to  act  in  a spirit 
of  fairness  and  justice  to  all — to  give  to  each  man 
his  rights — to  safeguard  each  man  in  his  rights; 
and  so  far  as  in  me  lies,  while  I hold  my  present 
position  I will  be  true  to  that  conception  of  my 
duty. — At  Coliseum,  Hartford,  Conn.,  Aug.  22, 


1902.  [p.  86.]  * 


* Page  figures  at  end  of  paragraphs  indicate  where  excerpts 
may  be  found  in  the  “Statesman  Edition”  of  “Presidential 
Addresses  and  State  Papers,"  published  by  “The  Review  of 
Reviews,”  and  are  intended  to  facilitate  reference  to  the  com- 
plete speech  or  paper  from  which  the  excerpt  is  taken. 


26 


PRESENT  PROBLEMS 


Our  Attitude  Toward  Them 

WE  have  kept  every  promise  made  in  1896 
and  1900.  We  have  a right  to  be  proud  of 
the  memories  of  the  last  six  years.  But  we  must 
remember  that  eacli  victory  only  opens  the  chance 
for  a new  struggle ; that  the  remembrance  of  tri- 
umphs achieved  in  the  past  is  of  use  chiefly  if  it 
spurs  us  to  fresh  effort  in  the  present.  No  nation 
has  ever  prospered  as  we  are  prospering  now,  and 
we  must  see  to  it  that  by  our  own  folly  we  do  not 
mar  this  prosperity.  Yet  we  must  see  to  it  also 
that  wherever  wrong  flourishes  it  be  repressed.  It 
is  not  the  habit  of  our  people  to  shirk  issues,  but 
squarely  to  face  them.  It  is  not  the  habit  of 
our  people  to  treat  a good  record  in  the  past 
as  anything  but  a reason  for  expecting  an  even 
better  record  in  the  present ; and  no  Admin- 
istration, gentlemen,  should  ask  to  be  judged  save 
on  those  lines.  The  tremendous  growth  of  our 
industrialism  has  brought  to  the  front  many  prob- 

n 


Present  Problems 


lems  with  which  we  must  deal ; and  I trust  that  we 
shall  deal  with  them  along  the  lines  indicated  in 
speech  and  in  action  by  that  profound  jurist  and 
upright  and  fearless  public  servant  who  represents 
Pennsylvania  in  the  Cabinet — Attorney-General 
Knox.  The  question  of  the  so-called  trusts  is  but 
one  of  the  questions  we  must  meet  in  connection 
with  our  industrial  system.  There  are  many  of 
them  and  they  are  serious ; but  they  can  and  will  be 
met.  Time  may  be  needed  for  making  the  solution 
perfect;  but  it  is  idle  to  tell  this  people  that  we 
have  not  the  power  to  solve  such  a problem  as  that 
of  exercising  adequate  supervision  over  the  great 
industrial  combinations  of  to-day.  We  have  the 
power  and  we  shall  find  out  the  way.  We  shall  not 
act  hastily  or  recklessly ; but  we  have  firmly  made 
up  our  minds  that  a solution,  and  a right  solution, 
shall  be  found,  and  found  it  will  be. 

No  nation  as  great  as  ours  can  expect  to  escape 
the  penalty  of  greatness,  for  greatness  does  not 
come  without  trouble  and  labor.  There  are  prob- 
lems ahead  of  us  at  home  and  problems  abroad, 
because  such  problems  are  incident  to  the  working 
out  of  a great  national  career.  We  do  not  shrink 
from  them.  Scant  is  our  patience  with  those  who 
preach  the  gospel  of  craven  weakness.  No  nation 
28 


Present  Problems 


under  the  sun  ever  jet  played  a part  worth  playing 
if  it  feared  its  fate  overmuch — if  it  did  not  have  the 
courage  to  be  great.  We  of  America,  we,  the  sons 
of  a nation  yet  in  the  pride  of  its  lusty  youth, 
spurn  the  teachings  of  distrust,  spurn  the  creed 
of  failure  and  despair.  We  know  that  the  future 
is  ours  if  we  have  in  us  the  manhood  to  grasp  it, 
and  we  enter  the  new  century  girding  our  loins  for 
the  contest  before  us,  rejoicing  in  the  struggle, 
and  resolute  so  to  bear  ourselves  that  the  Nation’s 
future  shall  even  surpass  her  glorious  past. — Union 
League,  Phila.,  Nov.  22,  1902.  [p.  219.] 


29 


PRESIDENT  McKINLEY 


NO  other  President  in  our  history  has  seen  high 
and  honorable  effort  crowned  with  more  con- 
spicuous personal  success.  No  other  President  en- 
tered upon  his  second  term  feeling  such  right  to  a 
profound  and  peaceful  satisfaction.  Then  by  a 
stroke  of  horror,  so  strange  in  its  fantastic  iniquity 
as  to  stand  unique  in  the  black  annals  of  crime,  he 
was  struck  down.  The  brave,  strong,  gentle  heart 
was  stilled  forever,  and  word  was  brought  to  the 
woman  who  wept  that  she  was  to  walk  thenceforth 
alone  in  the  shadow.  The  hideous  infamy  of  the 
deed  shocked  the  Nation  to  its  depths,  for  the  man 
thus  struck  at  was  in  a peculiar  sense  the  champion 
of  the  plain  people,  in  a peculiar  sense  the  repre- 
sentative and  the  exponent  of  those  ideals  which,  if 
we  live  up  to  them,  will  make,  as  they  have  largely 
made,  our  country  a blessed  refuge  for  all  who 
strive  to  do  right  and  to  live  their  lives  simply  and 
well  as  light  is  given  them.  The  Nation  was 
stunned,  and  the  people  mourned  with  a sense  of 
bitter  bereavement  because  they  had  lost  a man 
80 


President  McKinley 

whose  heart  beat  for  them  as  the  heart  of  Lincoln 
once  had  beaten.  We  did  right  to  mourn;  for  the 
loss  was  ours,  not  his.  He  died  in  the  golden  ful- 
ness of  his  triumph.  He  died  victorious  in  that 
highest  of  all  kinds  of  strife — the  strife  for  an 
ampler,  juster  and  more  generous  national  life. — 
Canton,  Ohio,  Jan.  27,  1903.  [p.  240.] 


31 


ANARCHY 


Its  Teachings,  and  All  Other  Class  Agitation,  a 
Menace  to  Our  Institutions 

WHEN  we  turn  from  the  man  to  the  Nation, 
the  harm  done  is  so  great  as  to  excite  our 
gravest  apprehensions  and  to  demand  our  wisest  and 
most  resolute  action.  This  criminal  was  a professed 
anarchist,  inflamed  by  the  teachings  of  professed 
anarchists,  and  probably  also  by  the  reckless  utter- 
ances of  those  who,  on  the  stump  and  in  the  public 
press,  appeal  to  the  dark  and  evil  spirits  of  malice 
and  greed,  envy  and  sullen  hatred.  The  wind  is 
sowed  by  the  men  who  preach  such  doctrines,  and 
they  cannot  escape  their  share  of  responsibility  for 
the  whirlwind  that  is  reaped.  This  applies  alike  to 
the  deliberate  demagogue,  to  the  exploiter  of  sen- 
sationalism, and  to  the  crude  and  foolish  visionary 
who,  for  whatever  reason,  apologizes  for  crime  or 
excites  aimless  discontent. — Presidential  message 
first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  532.] 


Anarchy 


Perfidy  of  Its  Appeal  to  Labor 

The  anarchist  is  a criminal  whose  perverted  in- 
stincts lead  him  to  prefer  confusion  and  chaos  to 
the  most  beneficent  form  of  social  order.  His  pro- 
test of  concern  for  workingmen  is  outrageous  in 
its  impudent  falsity ; for  if  the  political  institutions 
of  this  country  do  not  afford  opportunity  to  every 
honest  and  intelligent  son  of  toil,  then  the  door  of 
hope  is  forever  closed  against  him.  The  anarchist 
is  everywhere  not  merely  the  enemy  of  system  and 
of  progress,  but  the  deadly  foe  of  liberty.  If  ever 
anarchy  is  triumphant,  its  triumph  will  last  for  but 
one  red  moment,  to  be  succeeded  for  ages  by  the 
gloomy  night  of  despotism. — Presidential  message 
first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  531.] 

Positive  Measures  Recommended 

I earnestly  recommend  to  the  Congress  that  in 
the  exercise  of  its  wise  discretion  it  should  take  into 
consideration  the  coming  to  this  country  of  an- 
archists or  persons  professing  principles  hostile  to 
all  government  and  justifying  the  murder  of  those 
placed  in  authority.  Such  individuals  as  those 
who  not  long  ago  gathered  in  open  meeting  to 
33 


Anarchy 

glorify  the  murder  of  King  Humbert  of  Italy  per- 
petrate a crime,  and  the  law  should  insure  their 
rigorous  punishment.  They  and  those  like  them 
should  be  kept  out  of  this  country ; and  if  found 
here  they  should  be  promptly  deported  to  the  coun- 
try whence  they  came;  and  far-reaching  provisions 
should  be  made  for  the  punishment  of  those  who 
stay.  No  matter  calls  more  urgently  for  the  wisest 
thought  of  the  Congress. — Presidential  message 
first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  535.] 

Its  Antithesis  and  Its  Cure 

So  now  it  behooves  each  of  us  so  to  conduct  his 
civil  life,  so  to  do  his  duty  as  a citizen,  that  we 
shall  in  the  most  effective  way  war  against  the  spirit 
of  anarchy  in  all  its  forms. — G.  A.  R.  Rewnion, 
Washington,  Feb.  19,  1902.  [p.  17.] 


34 


IMMIGRATION  LAWS 


Exclude  Anarchy,  Prevent  Degradation  of  Labor, 
and  Keep  Up  the  Standard  of  Citizenship 

FIRST,  we  should  aim  to  exclude  absolutely 
not  only  all  persons  who  are  known  to  be 
believers  in  anarchistic  principles  or  members  of 
anarchistic  societies,  but  also  all  persons  who  are 
of  a low  moral  tendency  or  of  unsavory  reputation. 
This  means  that  we  should  require  a more  thorough 
system  of  inspection  abroad  and  a more  rigid  sys- 
tem of  examination  at  our  immigration  ports,  the 
former  being  especially  necessary. 

The  second  object  of  a proper  immigration  law 
ought  to  be  to  secure  by  a careful  and  not  merely 
perfunctory  educational  test  some  intelligent  ca- 
pacity to  appreciate  American  institutions  and  act 
sanely  as  American  citizens.  This  would  not  keep 
out  all  anarchists,  for  many  of  them  belong  to  the 
intelligent  criminal  class.  But  it  would  do  what  is 
also  in  point,  that  is,  tend  to  decrease  the  sum  of 
35 


Immigration  Laws 

ignorance,  so  potent  in  producing  the  envy,  suspi- 
cion, malignant  passion,  and  hatred  of  order,  out  of 
which  anarchistic  sentiment  inevitably  springs. 
Finally,  all  persons  should  be  excluded  who  are 
below  a certain  standard  of  economic  fitness  to 
enter  our  industrial  field  as  competitors  with  Ameri- 
can labor.  There  should  be  proper  proof  of  per- 
sonal capacity  to  earn  an  American  living  and 
enough  money  to  insure  a decent  start  under 
American  conditions.  This  would  stop  the  influx 
of  cheap  labor,  and  the  resulting  competition  which 
gives  rise  to  so  much  of  bitterness  in  American 
industrial  life;  and  it  would  dry  up  the  springs 
of  the  pestilential  social  conditions  in  our  great 
cities,  where  anarchistic  organizations  have  their 
greatest  possibility  of  growth. — Presidential  mes- 
sage first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  549.] 


36 


CITIZENSHIP 


The  Average  Man  Trustworthy 
UR  Republic  was  founded  upon  the  theory 


that  the  average  man  will  as  a rule  do  the 
right  thing,  that  in  the  long  run  the  majority  will 
decide  for  what  is  sane  and  wholesome.  If  our 
fathers  were  mistaken  in  that  theory,  if  ever  the 
times  become  such — not  occasionally  but  persist- 
ently— that  the  mass  of  the  people  do  what  is  un- 
wholesome, what  is  wrong,  then  the  Republic  can 
not  stand,  I care  not  how  good  its  laws,  I care  not 
what  marvellous  mechanism  its  Constitution  may 
embody.  In  this  country  of  ours  the  average  citi- 
zen must  devote  a good  deal  of  thought  to  the 
affairs  of  the  State  as  a whole  or  those  affairs  will 
go  backward ; and  he  must  devote  that  thought  and 
that  time  steadily  and  intelligently.  If  there  is 
any  one  quality  that  is  not  admirable,  whether 
in  a nation  or  in  an  individual,  it  is  hysterics, 
either  in  religion  or  in  anything  else.  The  man 


37 


Citizenship 


or  woman  who  makes  up  for  ten  days’  indifference 
to  duty  by  an  eleventh-day  morbid  repentance 
about  the  duty  is  of  scant  use  in  the  world. — 
Boston,  Aug.  25,  1902.  [p.  109.] 

Qualities  of  Good  Citizenship 

In  the  unending  strife  for  civic  betterment,  small 
is  the  use  of  these  people  who  mean  well,  but  who 
mean  well  feebly.  The  man  who  counts  is  the  man 
who  is  decent  and  who  makes  himself  felt  as  a force 
for  decency,  for  cleanliness,  for  civic  righteous- 
ness. He  must  have  several  qualities:  first  and 
foremost,  of  course,  he  must  be  honest,  he  must 
have  the  root  of  right  thinking  in  him.  That  is 
not  enough.  In  the  next  place  he  must  have  cour- 
age: the  timid  good  man  counts  but  little  in  the 
rough  business  of  trying  to  do  well  the  world’s 
work.  And  finally,  in  addition  to  being  honest  and 
brave  he  must  have  common-sense.  If  he  does  not 
have  it,  no  matter  what  other  qualities  he  may  have, 
he  will  find  himself  at  the  mercy  of  those  who, 
without  possessing  his  desire  to  do  right,  know  only 
too  well  how  to  make  the  wrong  effective.— Banquet 
to  Dr.  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Apl.  19, 1902.  [p. 
30.] 


38 


Citizenship 


Work  for  Work's  Sake 

If  you  are  worth  your  salt  and  want  your  chil- 
dren to  be  worth  their  salt,  teach  them  that  the  life 
that  is  not  a life  of  work  and  effort  is  worthless,  a 
curse  to  the  man  or  woman  leading  it,  a curse  to 
those  around  him  or  her.  Teach  the  boys  that  if 
they  are  ever  to  count  in  the  world  they  will  count 
not  by  flinching  from  difficulties,  but  by  warring 
with  and  overcrowding  them. — Before  Minnesota 
Legislature,  Apl.  J/.,  1903.  [p.  291.] 


Unity  in  Citizenship  and  of  Duty 

After  all,  we  are  one  people,  with  the  same  fun- 
damental characteristics,  whether  we  live  in  the 
city  or  in  the  country,  in  the  East  or  in  the  West, 
in  the  North  or  the  South.  Each  of  us,  unless  he 
is  contented  to  be  a cumberer  of  the  earth’s  surface, 
must  strive  to  do  his  life-work  with  his  whole  heart. 
Each  must  remember  that,  while  he  will  be  noxious 
to  every  one  unless  he  first  do  his  duty  by  himself, 
he  must  also  strive  ever  to  do  his  duty  by  his 
fellow.  The  problem  of  how  to  do  these  duties  is 
acute  everywhere.  It  is  most  acute  in  great  cities, 

39 


Citizenship 

but  it  exists  in  the  country,  too.  A man,  to  be  a 
good  citizen,  must  first  be  a good  bread-winner,  a 
good  husband,  a good  father — I hope  the  father  of 
many  healthy  children;  just  as  a woman’s  first 
duty  is  to  be  a good  housewife  and  mother.  The 
business  duties,  the  home  duties,  the  duties  to  one’s 
family,  come  first.  The  couple  who  bring  up 
plenty  of  healthy  children,  who  leave  behind  them 
many  sons  and  daughters  fitted  in  their  turn  to 
be  good  citizens,  emphatically  deserve  well  of  the 
State. — At  Bangor,  Me.,  Aug.  27,  1902.  [p. 

129.] 


Individual  Force 

It  is  a good  thing  to  have  a sound  body,  and  a 
better  thing  to  have  a sound  mind ; and  better  still 
to  have  that  aggregate  of  virile  and  decent  qualities 
which  we  group  together  under  the  name  of  char- 
acter. I said  both  decent  and  virile  qualities — it 
is  not  enough  to  have  one  or  the  other  alone.  If 
a man  is  strong  in  mind  and  body  and  misuses  his 
strength  then  he  becomes  simply  a foe  to  the  body 
politic,  to  be  hunted  down  by  all  decent  men ; and 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  he  has  thoroughly  decent 
impulses  but  lacks  strength,  he  is  a nice  man,  but 
40 


Citizenship 

does  not  count. — Banquet  to  Dr.  Butler,  A pi.  19, 
1902.  [p.  30.] 

Law  Not  an  Adequate  Substitute  for  Character 

There  never  has  been  devised,  and  there  never 
will  be  devised,  any  law  which  will  enable  a man 
to  succeed  save  by  the  exercise  of  those  qualities 
which  have  always  been  the  prerequisites  of  suc- 
cess— the  qualities  of  hard  work,  of  keen  intelli- 
gence, of  unflinching  will. — Providence,  R.  I., 
Aug.  23,  1902.  [p.  107.] 

Every  Man  the  Arbiter  of  the  Country’s  Good 

But  more  than  the  law,  far  more  than  the  admin- 
istration of  the  law,  depends  upon  the  individual 
quality  of  the  average  citizen.  The  chief  factor 
in  winning  success  for  your  State,  for  the  people 
in  the  State,  must  be  what  the  chief  factor  in 
winning  the  success  of  a people  has  been  from 
the  beginning  of  time — the  character  of  the  indi- 
vidual man,  of  the  individual  woman. — Omaha, 
Neb.,  Apl.  27,  1903.  [p.  331.] 


41 


Citizenship 


No  Public  Virtue  Where  Private  Virtue  Fails 

No  one  can  too  strongly  insist  upon  the  elemen- 
tary fact  that  you  cannot  build  the  superstructure 
of  public  virtue  save  on  private  virtue.  The  sum 
of  the  parts  is  the  whole,  and  if  we  wish  to  make 
that  whole,  the  State,  the  representative  and  ex- 
ponent and  symbol  of  decency,  it  must  be  so  made 
through  the  decency,  public  and  private,  of  the 
average  citizen. — Union  League,  San  Francisco, 
May  U,  1903.  [p.  413.] 

The  People  the  Ultimate  Authority 

After  all,  here  at  home  we  ourselves  always  have 
in  our  own  hands  the  remedy  whereby  to  supply 
any  deficiency  in  integrity  or  capacity  among  those 
that  govern  us. — Hartford,  Conn.,  Aug.  ft®,  1903. 

[p.  88.] 


TRUSTS,  CAPITAL,  LABOR, 
CORPORATIONS,  ETC. 

Tendencies  of  the  Times  and  Their  Treatment 

THIS  is  an  era  of  great  combinations  both  of 
labor  and  of  capital.  In  many  ways  these 
combinations  have  worked  for  good ; but  they  must 
work  under  the  law,  and  the  laws  concerning  them 
must  be  just  and  wise,  or  they  will  inevitably  do 
evil ; and  this  applies  as  much  to  the  richest  cor- 
poration as  to  the  most  powerful  labor  union.  Our 
laws  must  be  wise,  sane,  healthy,  conceived  in  the 
spirit  of  those  who  scorn  the  mere  agitator,  the 
mere  inciter  of  class  or  sectional  hatred;  who  wish 
justice  for  all  men;  who  recognize  the  need  of  ad- 
hering so  far  as  possible  to  the  old  American  doc- 
trine of  giving  the  widest  possible  scope  for  the 
free  exercise  of  individual  initiative,  and  yet  who 
recognize  also  that  after  combinations  have  reached 
a certain  stage  it  is  indispensable  to  the  general 
welfare  that  the  Nation  should  exercise  over  them, 
43 


Trusts — Capital 

cautiously  and  with  self-restraint,  but  firmly,  the 
power  of  supervision  and  regulation. — Charleston 
Exposition,  Apl.  9,  1902.  [p.  26.] 


Old  Laws  and  Old  Customs  Inoperative 

The  old  laws,  and  the  old  customs  which  had 
almost  the  binding  force  of  law,  were  once  quite 
sufficient  to  regulate  the  accumulation  and  distri- 
bution of  wealth.  Since  the  industrial  changes 
which  have  so  enormously  increased  the  productive 
power  of  mankind,  they  are  no  longer  sufficient. — 
Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
538.] 


The  Conservative  Course 

At  the  outset  I shall  ask  you  to  remember  that 
I do  not  approach  the  subject  either  from  the 
stand-point  of  those  who  speak  of  themselves  as 
anti-trust  or  anti-corporation  people,  nor  yet  from 
the  stand-point  of  those  who  are  fond  of  denying 
the  existence  of  evils  in  the  trusts,  or  who  appar- 
ently proceed  upon  the  assumption  that  if  a cor- 
poration is  large  enough  it  can  do  no  wrong.— 
Milwaukee,  Wis.,  Apl.  3,  1903.  [p.  272.] 

44 


Trusts — Capital 


Wise  Plans  Now  in  Massachusetts 


Most  of  our  difficulties  would  be  in  a fair  way 
of  solution  if  we  bad  the  power  to  put  upon  the 
national  statute  books,  and  did  put  upon  them, 
laws  for  the  Nation  much  like  those  on  the  subject 
of  corporations  in  Massachusetts.  If  the  Nation 
had  that  power,  mind  you,  I should  advocate  as 
strenuously  as  I know  how  that  the  power  should 
be  exercised  with  extreme  caution  and  self-restraint. 


— Boston,  Aug.  35,  1903.  [p.  116.] 


State  Control  Conflicts 


The  wide-spread  differences  in  laws,  even  between 
adjacent  States,  and  the  uncertainty  of  the  power 
of  enforcement,  result  practically  in  altogether  in- 


sufficient control.  I believe  that  the  Nation  must 


assume  this  power  of  control  by  legislation ; if 
necessary  by  constitutional  amendment. — Provi- 
dence, R.  I.,  Aug.  33,  1903.  [p.  104.] 


National  Control  Necessary 


The  large  corporations,  commonly  called  trusts, 
though  organized  in  one  State,  always  do  business 


45 


Trusts — Capital 

in  many  States,  often  doing  very  little  business  in 
the  State  where  they  are  incorporated.  There  is 
utter  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  State  laws  about 
them ; and  as  no  State  has  any  exclusive  interest  in 
or  power  over  their  acts,  it  has  in  practice  proved 
impossible  to  get  adequate  regulation  through 
State  action.  Therefore,  in  the  interest  of  the 
whole  people,  the  Nation  should,  without  interfer- 
ing with  the  power  of  the  States  in  the  matter 
itself,  also  assume  power  of  supervision  and  regu- 
lation over  all  corporations  doing  an  interstate 
business.  This  is  especially  true  where  the  corpora- 
tion derives  a portion  of  its  wealth  from  the  exist- 
ence of  some  monopolistic  element  or  tendency  in  its 
business.  There  would  be  no  hardship  in  such  super- 
vision ; banks  are  subject  to  it,  and  in  their  case  it 
is  now  accepted  as  a simple  matter  of  course. 
Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  supervision  of  corpora- 
tions by  the  National  Government  need  not  go  so 
far  as  is  now  the  case  with  the  supervision  exercised 
over  them  by  so  conservative  a State  as  Massa- 
chusetts, in  order  to  produce  excellent  results. — 
Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
544.] 


46 


Trusts — Capital 


Private  Capital , Rightly  Used,  a Blessing 

The  man  who  by  the  use  of  his  capital  develops 
a great  mine,  the  man  who  by  the  use  of  his  capital 
builds  a great  railroad,  the  man  who  by  the  use 
of  his  capital  either  individually  or  joined  with 
others  like  him  does  any  great  legitimate  business 
enterprise,  confers  a benefit,  not  a harm,  upon  the 
community,  and  is  entitled  to  be  so  regarded.  He 
is  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  law,  and  in  re- 
turn he  is  to  be  required  himself  to  obey  the  law. 
The  law  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  The  law  is  to 
be  administered  neither  for  the  rich  man  as  such, 
nor  for  the  poor  man  as  such.  It  is  to  be  admin- 
istered for  every  man,  rich  or  poor,  if  he  is  an 
honest  and  law-abiding  citizen;  and  it  is  to  be 
invoked  against  any  man,  rich  or  poor,  who  vio- 
lates it,  without  regard  to  which  end  of  the  social 
scale  he  may  stand  at,  without  regard  to  whether 
his  offence  takes  the  form  of  greed  and  cunning, 
or  the  form  of  physical  violence ; in  either  case  if  he 
violates  the  law,  the  law  is  to  be  invoked  against 
him ; and  in  so  invoking  it  I have  the  right  to 
challenge  the  support  of  all  good  citizens  and  to 
demand  the  acquiescence  of  every  good  man.  I 

47 


Trusts — Capital 

hope  I will  have  it ; but  once  for  all  I wish  it  under- 
stood that  even  if  I do  not  have  it  I shall  enforce 
the  law. — Butte,  Mont.,  May  37,  1903.  [p.  433.] 


Demagoguery  Dangerous 

We  are  certain  to  fail  if  we  adopt  the  policy 
of  the  demagogue  who  raves  against  the  wealth 
which  is  simply  the  form  of  embodied  thrift,  fore- 
sight, and  intelligence;  who  would  shut  the  door 
of  opportunity  against  those  whose  energy  we 
should  especially  foster,  by  penalizing  the  qualities 
which  tell  for  success.  Just  as  little  can  we  afford 
to  follow  those  who  fear  to  recognize  injustice  and 
to  endeavor  to  cut  it  out  because  the  task  is  diffi- 
cult or  even — if  performed  by  unskilful  hands — 
dangerous. — Charleston  Exposition,  Apl.  9,  1903. 
[p.  25.] 

Conservatism  Must  Dictate 

We  know  well  the  danger  of  false  remedies,  and 
we  are  against  all  violent,  radical,  and  unwise 
change.  But  we  believe  that  by  proceeding  slowly, 
yet  resolutely,  with  good  sense  and  moderation,  and 
also  with  a firm  determination  not  to  be  swerved 
from  our  course  either  by  foolish  clamor  or  by  any 
48 


Trusts — Capital 

base  or  sinister  influence,  we  can  accomplish  much 
for  the  betterment  of  conditions. — Milwaukee, 
Wis.,  Apl.  3,  1903.  [p.  274.] 


Wealth  Not  the  Creation  of  the  State 

The  creation  of  these  great  corporate  fortunes 
has  not  been  due  to  the  tariff'  nor  to  any  other 
governmental  action,  but  to  natural  causes  in  the 
business  world,  operating  in  other  countries  as  they 
operate  in  our  own. 

The  process  has  aroused  much  antagonism,  a 
great  part  of  which  is  wholly  without  warrant.  It 
is  not  true  that  as  the  rich  have  grown  richer  the 
poor  have  grown  poorer.  On  the  contrary,  never 
before  has  the  average  man,  the  wage-worker,  the 
farmer,  the  small  trader,  been  so  well  off  as  in  this 
country  and  at  the  present  time.  There  have  been 
abuses  connected  with  the  accumulation  of  wealth; 
yet  it  remains  true  that  a fortune  accumulated  in 
legitimate  business  can  be  accumulated  by  the  per- 
son specially  benefited  only  on  condition  of  con- 
ferring immense  incidental  benefits  upon  others. — 
Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
538.] 


49 


Trusts — Capital 


Individual  Energy  Must  Not  Be  Discouraged 

We  should  recognize  the  immense  importance  to 
this  material  development  of  leaving  as  unham- 
pered as  is  compatible  with  the  public  good  the 
strong  and  forceful  men  upon  whom  the  success 
of  business  operations  inevitably  rests.  The  slight- 
est study  of  business  conditions  will  satisfy 
anyone  capable  of  forming  a judgment  that  the 
personal  equation  is  the  most  important  factor  in  a 
business  operation ; that  the  business  ability  of  the 
man  at  the  head  of  any  business  concern,  big  or 
little,  is  usually  the  factor  which  fixes  the  gulf 
between  striking  success  and  hopeless  failure. — 
Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
539.] 

Wage-workers9  Welfare  Must  Be  Conserved 

With  the  sole  exception  of  the  farming  interest, 
no  one  matter  is  of  such  vital  moment  to  our  whole 
people  as  the  welfare  of  the  wage-workers.  If  the 
farmer  and  the  wage-worker  are  well  off,  it  is 
absolutely  certain  that  all  others  will  be  well  off 
too. — Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress. 
[p.  546.] 


50 


Trusts — Capital 


Organization  of  Labor  a Benefit 

I believe  emphatically  in  organized  labor.  I 
believe  in  organizations  of  wage-workers.  Organ- 
ization is  one  of  the  laws  of  our  social  and  economic 
development  at  this  time.  But  I feel  that  we  must 
always  keep  before  our  minds  the  fact  that  there 
is  nothing  sacred  in  the  name  itself.  To  call  an 
organization  an  organization  does  not  make  it  a 
good  one.  The  worth  of  an  organization  depends 
upon  its  being  handled  with  courage,  skill,  wisdom, 
spirit  of  fair  dealing  as  between  man  and  man,  and 
wise  self-restraint. — Brotherhood  of  Locomotive 
Firemen,  Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  Sept.  8,  1902.  [p. 

159.] 

Organization,  Whether  of  Labor  or  Capital,  Must 
Produce  Good  Results 

Under  present-day  conditions,  it  is  as  necessary 
to  have  corporations  in  the  business  world  as 
it  is  to  have  organizations,  unions,  among 
wage-workers.  We  have  a right  to  ask  in  each 
case  only  this:  that  good,  and  not  harm,  shall 
follow.  Exactly  as  labor  organizations,  when  man- 
aged intelligently  and  in  a spirit  of  justice  and 
51 


Trusts — Capital 

fair  play,  are  of  very  great  sendee  not  only  to  the 
wage-workers,  but  to  the  whole  community,  as  has 
been  shown  again  and  again  in  the  history  of  many 
such  organizations ; so  wealth,  not  merely  indi- 
vidual, but  corporate,  when  used  aright  is  not 
merely  beneficial  to  the  community  as  a whole,  but 
is  absolutely  essential  to  the  upbuilding  of  such  a 
series  of  communities  as  those  whose  citizens  I am 
now  addressing. — Providence,  R.  I.,  Aug.  23, 
1902.  [p.  102.] 

Organization  Second  Only  to  Individual  Initiative 
in  Productiveness 

The  chief  factor  in  the  success  of  each  man — 
wage-worker,  farmer,  and  capitalist  alike — must 
ever  be  the  sum  total  of  his  own  individual  quali- 
ties and  abilities.  Second  only  to  this  comes  the 
power  of  acting  in  combination  or  association  with 
others.  Very  great  good  has  been  and  will  be 
accomplished  by  associations  or  unions  of  wage- 
workers, when  managed  with  forethought,  and 
when  they  combine  insistence  upon  their  own  rights 
with  law-abiding  respect  for  the  rights  of  others. 
The  display  of  these  qualities  in  such  bodies  is  a 
duty  of  the  Nation  no  less  than  to  the  associations 
52 


Trusts — Capital 

themselves. — Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh 
Congress,  [p.  548.] 

Mutual  Understanding  the  Means  of  Obviating 
Conflict 

I have  a great  deal  of  faith  in  the  average  Ameri- 
can citizen.  I think  he  is  a pretty  good  fellow, 
and  I think  he  can  generally  get  on  with  the  other 
average  American  citizen  if  he  will  only  know  him. 
If  he  does  not  know  him,  but  makes  him  a monster 
in  his  mind,  then  he  will  not  get  on  with  him.  But 
if  he  will  take  the  trouble  to  know  him  and  realize 
that  he  is  a being  just  like  himself,  with  the  same 
instincts,  not  all  of  them  good,  the  same  desire  to 
overcome  those  that  are  not  good,  the  same  pur- 
poses, the  same  tendencies,  the  same  shortcomings, 
the  same  desires  for  good,  the  same  need  of  striving 
against  evil;  if  he  will  realize  all  this,  then  if  you 
can  get  the  two  together  with  an  honest  desire  each 
to  try  not  only  to  help  himself  but  to  help  the  other, 
most  of  our  problems  will  be  solved. — Topeka, 
Kan.,  May  1,  1903.  [p.  538.] 


53 


Trusts — Capital 

Class  Agitators  Inimical  to  Labor 

There  is  no  worse  enemy  of  the  wage-worker 
than  the  man  who  condones  mob  violence  in  any 
shape  or  who  preaches  class  hatred. — Syracuse, 
N.  Y.,  State  Fair,  Sept.  7,  1903.  [p.  475.] 

Envy  of  the  Fortunate  and  Brutal  Indifference 
to  Suffering  Equally  Disturbing 

Arrogance,  suspicion,  brutal  envy  of  the  well-to- 
do,  brutal  indifference  toward  those  who  are  not 
well-to-do,  the  hard  refusal  to  consider  the  rights 
of  others,  the  foolish  refusal  to  consider  the  limits 
of  beneficent  action,  the  base  appeal  to  the  spirit 
of  selfish  greed,  whether  it  take  the  form  of  plunder 
of  the  fortunate  or  of  oppression  of  the  unfortu- 
nate— from  these  and  from  all  kindred  vices  this 
Nation  must  be  kept  free  if  it  is  to  remain  in  its 
present  position  in  the  fore-front  of  the  peoples 
of  mankind. — Chamber  of  Commerce,  N.  Y.,  No- 
vember 11,  1902.  [p.  199.] 

We  All  Go  Up  or  Down  Together 

Men  sincerely  interested  in  the  due  protection 
of  property,  and  men  sincerely  interested  in  seeing 
54 


Trusts — Capital 

that  the  just  rights  of  labor  are  guaranteed,  should 
alike  remember  not  only  that  in  the  long  run 
neither  the  capitalist  nor  the  wage-worker  can  be 
helped  in  healthy  fashion  save  by  helping  the  other; 
but  also  that  to  require  either  side  to  obey  the  law 
and  do  its  full  duty  toward  the  community  is  em- 
phatically to  that  side’s  real  interest. — Syracuse 
State  Fair,  Sept.  7,  1903.  [p.  475.] 

Industrial  Tendencies  to  Be  Guided,  Not 
Obstructed 

You  can’t  dam  the  current.  You  can  build 
levees  to  keep  the  current  within  bounds  and  to 
shape  its  direction.  I think  that  is  exactly  what 
we  can  do  in  connection  with  these  great  corpora- 
tions known  as  trusts.  You  cannot  put  a stop  to 
or  reverse  the  industrial  tendencies  of  the  age,  but 
you  can  control  and  regulate  them  and  see  that 
they  do  no  harm. — Wheeling,  W.  V a..  Sept.  6, 
1903.  [p.  149.] 

Organization  of  Finances,  Properly  Conducted, 
Beneficent 

Corporations  that  are  handled  honestly  and 
fairly,  so  far  from  being  an  evil,  are  a natural 
55 


Trusts — Capital 

business  evolution  and  make  for  the  general  pros- 
perity of  our  land.  We  do  not  wish  to  destroy  cor- 
porations, but  we  do  wish  to  make  them  subserve 
the  public  good. — At  Music  Hall,  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
Sept.  20,  1902.  [p.  173.] 

Organization  of  Finances,  if  Abused,  May  Be 
Controlled  Under  Present  Powers  of  Congress 

I believe  that  monopolies,  unjust  discriminations, 
which  prevent  or  cripple  competition,  fraudulent 
overcapitalization,  and  other  evils  in  trust  organi- 
zations and  practices  which  injuriously  affect  inter- 
state trade  can  be  prevented  under  the  power  of 
the  Congress  to  “regulate  commerce  with  foreign 
nations  and  among  the  several  States”  through 
regulations  and  requirements  operating  directly 
upon  such  commerce,  the  instrumentalities  thereof, 
and  those  engaged  therein. — Message  second  session 
Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p  612.] 

Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  Furnishes 
the  Means  of  Control 

The  Congress  has  created  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Labor,  including  the  Bureau  of 
Corporations,  with  for  the  first  time  authority  to 

56 


Trusts — Capital 


secure  proper  publicity  of  such  proceedings  of 
these  great  corporations  as  the  public  has  the  right 
to  know.  It  has  provided  for  the  expediting  of 
suits  for  the  enforcement  of  the  Federal  anti-trust 
law ; and  by  another  law  it  has  secured  equal  treat- 
ment to  all  producers  in  the  transportation  of  their 
goods,  thus  taking  a long  stride  forward  in  making 
effective  the  work  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission. 

The  establishment  of  the  Department  of  Com- 
merce and  Labor,  with  the  Bureau  of  Corporations 
thereunder,  marks  a real  advance  in  the  direction  of 
doing  all  that  is  possible  for  the  solution  of  the 
questions  vitally  affecting  capitalists  and  wage- 
workers. The  act  creating  the  Department  was 
approved  on  February  14,  1903,  and  two  days  later 
the  head  of  the  Department  was  nominated  and 
confirmed  by  the  Senate.  Since  then  the  work  of 
organization  has  been  pushed  as  rapidly  as  the 
initial  appropriations  permitted,  and  with  due  re- 
gard to  thoroughness  and  the  broad  purposes  which 
the  Department  is  designed  to  serve. — Message 
second  session  Fifty-eighth  Congress,  [p.  649.] 


57 


Trusts — Capital 


The  Laws  Will  Be  Enforced 

A good  deal  can  be  done  now,  a good  deal  is 
being  done  now.  As  far  as  the  anti-trust  laws  go 
they  will  be  enforced.  No  suit  will  be  undertaken 
for  the  sake  of  seeming  to  undertake  it. — Boston, 
Aug.  25,  1902.  [p.  117.] 


Enforcement  Must  Proceed  Conservatively 

Even  when  the  power  has  been  granted  it  would 
be  most  unwise  to  exercise  it  too  much,  to  begin  by 
too  stringent  legislation.  The  mechanism  of  mod- 
ern business  is  as  delicate  and  complicated  as  it  is 
vast,  and  nothing  would  be  more  productive  of  evil 
to  all  of  us,  and  especially  to  those  least  well  off 
in  this  world’s  goods,  than  ignorant  meddling  with 
this  mechanism — above  all,  meddling  in  a spirit  of 
class  legislation  or  hatred  or  rancor.  It  is  emi- 
nently necessary  that  the  power  should  be  had,  but 
it  is  just  as  necessary  that  it  should  be  exercised 
with  wisdom  and  self-restraint. — Providence,  R.  I., 
Aug.  23, 1902.  [p.  105.] 


58 


Trusts — Capital 


Privileges  Derived  From  the  Government  Must 
Be  Reasonably  Used 

It  is  no  limitation  upon  property  rights  or  free- 
dom of  contract  to  require  that  when  men  receive 
from  government  the  privilege  of  doing  busi- 
ness under  corporate  form,  which  frees  them  from 
individual  responsibility,  and  enables  them  to  call 
into  their  enterprises  the  capital  of  the  public,  they 
shall  do  so  upon  absolutely  truthful  representations 
as  to  the  value  of  the  property  in  which  the  capital 
is  to  be  invested. — Message  first  session  Fifty- 
seventh  Congress,  [p.  542.] 


59 


ANTI  TRUST  ACTIONS 


A Brief  History 

IT  was  shown  that  certain  trunk  lines  had  en- 
tered into  unlawful  agreements  as  to  the 
transportation  of  food  products  from  the  West  to 
the  Atlantic  seaboard,  giving  a few  favored  ship- 
pers rates  much  below  the  tariff  charges  imposed 
upon  the  smaller  dealers  and  the  general  public. 
These  unjust  practices  had  prevailed  to  such  an 
extent  and  for  so  long  a time  that  many  of  the 
smaller  shippers  had  been  driven  out  of  business, 
until  practically  one  buyer  of  grain  on  each  rail- 
way system  had  been  able  by  his  illegal  advantages 
to  secure  a monopoly  on  the  line  with  which  his 
secret  compact  was  made;  this  monopoly  enabling 
him  to  fix  the  price  to  both  producer  and  consumer. 
Many  of  the  great  packing-house  concerns  were 
shown  to  be  in  combination  with  each  other  and 
with  most  of  the  great  railway  lines,  whereby  they 
enjoyed  large  secret  concessions  in  rates  and  thus 
60 


Anti-Trust  Actions 


obtained  a practical  monopoly  of  the  fresh  and 
cured  meat  industry  of  the  country.  These  fusions, 
though  violative  of  the  statute,  had  prevailed  un- 
checked for  so  many  years  that  they  had  become 
intrenched  in  and  interwoven  with  the  commercial 
life  of  certain  large  distributing  localities ; al- 
though this  was  of  course  at  the  expense  of  the  vast 
body  of  law-abiding  merchants,  the  general  public, 
and  particularly  of  unfavored  localities. 

Under  those  circumstances  it  was  a serious  prob- 
lem to  determine  the  wise  course  to  follow  in  vital- 
izing a law  which  had  in  part  become  obsolete  or 
proved  incapable  of  enforcement.  Of  what  the 
Attorney-General  did  in  enforcing  it  I shall  speak 
later.  The  decisions  of  the  courts  upon  the  law 
had  betrayed  weaknesses  and  imperfections,  some 
of  them  so  serious  as  to  render  abortive  efforts  to 
apply  any  effective  remedy  for  the  existing  evils. 

It  is  clear  that  corporations  created  for  quasi- 
public purposes,  clothed  for  that  reason  with  the 
ultimate  power  of  the  state  to  take  private  prop- 
erty against  the  will  of  the  owner,  hold  their  cor- 
porate powers  as  carriers  in  trust  for  the  fairly 
impartial  service  of  all  the  public.  Favoritism  in 
the  use  of  such  powers,  unjustly  enriching  some 
and  unjustly  impoverishing  others,  discriminating 
61 


Anti-Trust  Actions 


in  favor  of  some  places  and  against  others,  is  pal- 
pably violative  of  plain  principles  of  justice.  Such 
a practice  unchecked  is  hurtful  in  many  ways. 
Congress,  having  had  its  attention  drawn  to  the 
matter,  enacted  a most  important  anti-rebate  law, 
which  greatly  strengthens  the  interstate  commerce 
law.  This  new  law  prohibits  under  adequate  pen- 
alties the  giving  and  as  well  the  demanding  or 
receiving  of  such  preferences,  and  provides  the 
preventive  remedy  of  injunction.  The  vigorous 
administration  of  this  law — and  it  will  be  enforced 
— will,  it  is  hoped,  afford  a substantial  remedy  for 
certain  trust  evils  which  have  attracted  public 
attention  and  have  created  public  unrest. 

This  law  represents  a noteworthy  and  important 
advance  toward  just  and  effective  regulation  of 
transportation.  Moreover,  its  passage  has  been 
supplemented  by  the  enactment  of  a law  to  expedite 
the  hearing  of  actions  of  public  moment  under  the 
anti-trust  act,  known  as  the  Sherman  law,  and 
under  the  act  to  regulate  commerce,  at  the  request 
of  the  Attorney-General;  and  furthermore,  addi- 
tional funds  have  been  appropriated  to  be  expended 
under  the  direction  of  the  Attorney-General  in  the 
enforcement  of  these  laws. 

All  of  this  represents  a great  and  substantial 

62 


Anti-Trust  Actions 


advance  in  legislation.  But  more  important  even 
than  legislation  is  the  administration  of  the  law, 
and  I ask  jour  attention  for  a moment  to  the  way 
in  which  the  law  has  been  administered  by  the  pro- 
found jurist  and  fearless  public  servant  who  now 
occupies  the  position  of  Attorney-General,  Mr. 
Knox.  The  Constitution  enjoins  upon  the  Presi- 
dent that  he  shall  take  care  that  the  laws  be  faith- 
fully executed,  and  under  this  provision  the  Attor- 
ney-General formulated  a policy  which  was  in  effect 
nothing  but  the  rigid  enforcement,  by  suits  man- 
aged with  consummate  skill  and  ability,  both  of  the 
anti-trust  law  and  of  the  imperfect  provisions  of 
the  act  to  regulate  commerce.  The  first  step  taken 
was  the  prosecution  of  fourteen  suits  against  the 
principal  railroads  of  the  Middle  West,  restraining 
them  by  injunction  from  further  violations  of 
either  of  the  laws  in  question. 

About  the  same  time  the  case  against  the  North- 
ern Securities  Company  was  initiated.  This  was  a 
corporation  organized  under  the  laws  of  the  State 
of  New  Jersey  with  a capital  of  four  hundred 
million  dollars,  the  alleged  purpose  being  to  control 
the  Great  Northern  and  the  Northern  Pacific  rail- 
road companies,  two  parallel  and  competing  lines 
extending  across  the  northern  tier  of  States  from 
63 


Anti-Trust  Actions 

the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  What- 
ever the  purpose,  its  consummation  would  have 
resulted  in  the  control  of  the  two  great  railway 
systems — upon  which  the  people  of  the  North- 
western States  were  so  largely  dependent  for  their 
supplies  and  to  get  their  products  to  market — 
being  practically  merged  into  the  New  Jersey  cor- 
poration. The  proposition  that  these  independent 
systems  of  railroads  should  be  merged  under  a 
single  control  alarmed  the  people  of  the  States 
concerned,  lest  they  be  subjected  to  what  they 
deemed  a monopoly  of  interstate  transportation 
and  the  suppi’ession  of  competition.  The  Gov- 
ernors of  the  States  most  deeply  affected  held  a 
meeting  to  consider  how  to  prevent  the  merger  be- 
coming effective  and  passed  resolutions  calling 
upon  the  National  Government  to  enforce  the  anti- 
trust laws  against  the  alleged  combination.  When 
these  resolutions  were  referred  to  the  Attorney- 
General  for  consideration  and  advice,  he  reported 
that  in  his  opinion  the  Northern  Securities  Com- 
pany and  its  control  of  the  railroads  mentioned 
was  a combination  in  restraint  of  trade,  and  was 
attempting  a monopoly  in  violation  of  the  national 
anti-trust  law.  Thereupon  a suit  in  equity,  which 
is  now  pending,  was  begun  by  the  Government  to 
64 


Anti-Trust  Actions 

test  the  validity  of  this  transaction  under  the  Sher- 
man law. 

At  nearly  the  same  time  the  disclosures  respect- 
ing the  secret  rebates  enjoyed  by  the  great  packing- 
house companies,  coupled  with  the  very  high  price 
of  meats,  led  the  Attorney-General  to  direct  an 
investigation  into  the  methods  of  the  so-called  beef 
trust.  The  result  was  that  he  filed  bills  for  injunc- 
tion against  six  of  the  principal  packing-house 
companies,  and  restrained  them  from  combining 
and  agreeing  upon  prices  at  which  they  would  sell 
their  products  in  States  other  than  those  in  which 
their  meats  were  prepared  for  market.  Writs  of 
injunction  were  issued  accordingly,  and  since  then, 
after  full  argument,  the  United  States  Circuit 
Court  has  made  the  injunction  perpetual. 

The  cotton  interests  of  the  South,  including 
growers,  buyers,  and  shippers,  made  complaint  that 
they  were  suffering  great  injury  in  their  business 
from  the  methods  of  the  Southern  railroads  in  the 
handling  and  transportation  of  cotton.  They  al- 
leged that  these  railroads,  by  combined  action  under 
a pooling  arrangement  to  support  their  rate- 
schedules,  had  denied  to  the  shippers  the  right  to 
elect  over  what  roads  their  commodities  should  be 
shipped,  and  that  by  dividing  upon  a fixed  basis 
65 


Anti-Trust  Actions 


the  cotton  crop  of  the  South  all  inducement  to 
compete  in  rates  for  the  transportation  thereof 
was  eliminated.  Proceedings  were  instituted  by 
the  Attorney-General  under  the  anti-trust  law, 
which  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  the  pool  and  in 
restoring  to  the  growers  and  shippers  of  the  South 
the  right  to  ship  their  products  over  any  road  they 
elected,  thus  removing  the  restraint  upon  the  free- 
dom of  commerce. 

In  November,  1902,  the  Attorney-General  di- 
rected that  a bill  for  an  injunction  be  filed  in  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court  at  San  Francisco 
against  the  Federal  Salt  Company — a corporation 
which  had  been  organized  under  the  laws  of  an 
Eastern  State,  but  had  its  main  office  and  principal 
place  of  business  in  California — and  against  a 
number  of  other  companies  and  persons  consti- 
tuting what  was  known  as  the  salt  trust.  These 
injunctions  were  to  restrain  the  execution  of  certain 
contracts  between  the  Federal  Salt  Company  and 
the  other  defendants,  by  which  the  latter  agreed 
neither  to  import  nor  buy  or  sell  salt,  except  from 
and  to  the  Federal  Salt  Company,  and  not  to  en- 
gage or  assist  in  the  production  of  salt  west  of  the 
Mississippi  River  during  the  continuance  of  such 
contracts.  As  the  result  of  these  agreements  the 
66 


Anti-Trust  Actions 


price  of  salt  had  been  advanced  about  four  hundred 
per  cent.  A temporary  injunction  order  was  ob- 
tained, which  the  defendants  asked  the  court  to 
modify  on  the  ground  that  the  anti-trust  law  had 
no  application  to  contracts  for  purchases  and  sales 
within  a State.  The  Circuit  Court  overruled  this 
contention  and  sustained  the  Government’s  posi- 
tion. This  practically  concluded  the  case,  and  it 
is  understood  that  in  consequence  the  Federal  Salt 
Company  is  about  to  be  dissolved  and  that  no 
further  contest  will  be  made. 

The  above  is  a brief  outline  of  the  most  impor- 
tant steps,  legislative  and  administrative,  taken 
during  the  past  eighteen  months  in  the  direction 
of  solving,  so  far  as  at  present  it  seems  practicable 
by  national  legislation  or  administration  to  solve, 
what  we  call  the  trust  problem.  They  represent  a 
sum  of  very  substantial  achievement.  They  rep- 
resent a successful  effort  to  devise  and  apply  real 
remedies;  an  effort  which  so  far  succeeded  because 
it  was  made  not  only  with  resolute  purpose  and  de- 
termination, but  also  in  a spirit  of  common-sense 
and  justice,  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  rancor, 
hysteria,  and  unworthy  demagogic  appeal.  In  the 
same  spirit  the  laws  will  continue  to  be  enforced. 
Not  only  is  the  legislation  recently  enacted  effect- 
67 


Anti-Trust  Actions 

ive,  but  in  my  judgment  it  was  impracticable  to 
attempt  more.  Nothing  of  value  is  to  be  expected 
from  ceaseless  agitation  for  radical  and  extreme 
legislation.  The  people  may  wisely,  and  with  con- 
fidence, await  the  results  which  are  reasonably  to  be 
expected  from  the  impartial  enforcement  of  the 
laws  which  have  recently  been  placed  upon  the 
statute-books.  Legislation  of  a general  and  indis- 
criminate character  would  be  sure  to  fail,  either 
because  it  would  involve  all  interests  in  a common 
ruin,  or  because  it  would  not  really  reach  any  evil. 
We  have  endeavored  to  provide  a discriminating 
adaptation  of  the  remedy  to  the  real  mischief. 

Many  of  the  alleged  remedies  advocated  are  of 
the  unpleasantly  drastic  type  which  seeks  to  destroy 
the  disease  by  killing  the  patient.  Others  are  so 
obviously  futile  that  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  treat 
them  seriously  or  as  being  advanced  in  good  faith. 
High  among  the  latter  I place  the  effort  to  reach 
the  trust  question  by  means  of  the  tariff.  You  can, 
of  course,  put  an  end  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
trusts  by  putting  an  end  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
Nation ; but  the  price  for  such  action  seems  high. 
The  alternative  is  to  do  exactly  what  has  been  done 
during  the  life  of  the  Congress  which  has  just 
closed — that  is,  to  endeavor,  not  to  destroy  cor- 
68 


Anti-Trust  Actions 


porations,  but  to  regulate  them  with  a view  of 
doing  away  with  whatever  is  of  evil  in  them  and 
of  making  them  subserve  the  public  use.  The  law 
is  not  to  be  administered  in  the  interest  of  the  poor 
man  as  such,  nor  yet  in  the  interest  of  the  rich  man 
as  such,  but  in  the  interest  of  the  law-abiding 
man,  rich  or  poor.  We  are  no  more  against  or- 
ganizations of  capital  than  against  organizations 
of  labor.  -We  welcome  both,  demanding  only  that 
each  shall  do  right  and  shall  remember  its  duty  to 
the  Republic.  Such  a course  we  consider  not 
merely  a benefit  to  the  poor  man,  but  a benefit  to 
the  rich  man.  We  do  no  man  an  injustice  when 
we  require  him  to  obey  the  law.  On  the  contrary, 
if  he  is  a man  whose  safety  and  well-being  depend 
in  a peculiar  degree  upon  the  existence  of  the 
spirit  of  law  and  order,  we  are  rendering  him  the 
greatest  service  when  we  require  him  to  be  himself 
an  exemplar  of  that  spirit. — Milwaukee , Wis., 
Apl.  3,  1903.  [p.  278.] 


69 


PANAMA  CANAL 


The  United  States  to  Accomplish  this  Great 
Engineering  Feat 

THE  Isthmian  Canal  is  to  be  one  of  the  greatest, 
probably  the  greatest,  engineering  feat  of  the 
twentieth  century ; and  I am  glad  it  is  to  be  done 
by  America.  We  must  take  care  that  it  is  done 
under  the  best  conditions  and  by  the  best  Ameri- 
cans.— Hartford,  Conn.,  Aug.  22,  1902.  [p.  91.] 

The  Canal  an  Advantage,  Not  a Menace  to  Other 
American  States 

The  canal  will  be  of  great  benefit  to  America, 
and  of  importance  to  all  the  world.  It  will  be  of 
advantage  to  us  industrially  and  also  as  improving 
our  military  position.  It  will  be  of  advantage  to 
the  countries  of  tropical  America.  It  is  earnestly 
to  be  hoped  that  all  of  these  countries  will  do  as 
some  of  them  have  already  done  with  signal  suc- 
70 


Panama  Canal 


cess,  and  will  invite  to  their  shores  commerce  and 
improve  their  material  conditions  by  recognizing 
that  stability  and  order  are  the  prerequisites  of 
successful  development.  No  independent  nation  in 
America  need  have  the  slightest  fear  of  aggression 
from  the  United  States.  It  behooves  each  one  to 
maintain  order  within  its  own  borders  and  to  dis- 
charge its  just  obligations  to  foreigners.  When 
this  is  done  they  can  rest  assured  that,  be  they 
strong  or  weak,  they  have  nothing  to  dread  from 
outside  interference.  More  and  more,  the  increas- 
ing interdependence  and  complexity  of  interna- 
tional, political,  and  economic  relations  render  it 
incumbent  on  all  civilized  and  orderly  powers  to 
insist  on  the  proper  policing  of  the  world. — Mes- 
sage second  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
624.] 

Its  Importance  to  the  Country 

No  single  great  material  work  which  remains  to 
be"  undertaken  on  this  coil  linen  L is  of  such  conse- 
quence to  the  American  people  as  the  building  of  a 
canal  across~the  isthmus  connecting  North  and 

"South  America.  .Its  importance  to  the  Nation  is  hv 

no  means  limited  merely  to  its  material  effects  upon 
our  business  prosperity ; and  yet  with  view  to  these 
71 


Panama  Canal 


effects  alone  it  would  be  to  the  last  degree  impor- 
tant for  us  immediately  to  begin  it.  While  its 
beneficial  effects  would  perhaps  be  most  marked 
upon  the  Pacific  Coast  and  the  Gulf  and  South 
Atlantic  States,  it  would  also  greatly  benefit  other 
sections.  It  is  emphatically  a work  which  it  is  for 
the  interest  of  the  entire  country  to  begin  and 
complete  as  soon  as  possible ; it  is  one  of  those  great 
works  which  only  a great  nation  can  undertake 

with  prospects  of  success,  and  which  when  done  are 
not  only  permanent  assets  in  the  nation’s  material 

interests,  hut,  standing  monuments  to  its  const.nic- 
trve  ability. — Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh 
Congress,  [p.  573.] 

Blind  Criticism 

I hesitate  to  refer  to  the  injurious  insinuations 
which  have  been  made  of  complicity  by  this  gov- 
ernment in  the  revolutionary  movement  in  Panama. 
They  are  as  destitute  of  foundation  as  of  pro- 
priety. The  only  excuse  for  my  mentioning  them 
is  the  fear  lest  unthinking  persons  might  mistake 
for  acquiescence  the  silence  of  mere  self-respect. 
I think  proper  to  say,  therefore,  that  no  one  con- 
nected with  this  Government  had  any  part  in  pre- 
72 


Panama  Canal 


paring,  inciting,  or  encouraging  the  late  revolution 
on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  that  save  from  the 
reports  of  our  military  and  naval  officers,  no 
one  connected  with  this  Government  had  any 
previous  knowledge  of  the  revolution  except 
such  as  was  accessible  to  any  person  of  ordinary 
intelligence  who  read  the  newspapers  and  kept  up 
a current  acquaintance  with  public  affairs. — 
Special  message  to  Congress , Jan.  If,  190 If.  [p. 
743.] 


Original  Guaranty  of  New  Granadian  Integrity 
Intended  Mainly  to  Further  Con- 
struction of  Canal 

The  attacks  against  which  the  United  States 
engaged  to  protect  New  Granadian  sovereignty 
were  those  of  foreign  powers ; but  this  engagement 
was  only  a means  to  the  accomplishment  of  a yet 
more  important  end.  The  great  design  of  the 
article  was  to  assure  the  dedication  of  the  Isthmus 
to  the  purposes  of  free  and  unobstructed  inter- 
oceanic  transit,  the  consummation  of  which  would 
be  found  in  an  interoceanic  canal. — Special  mes- 
sage to  Congress,  Jan.  If,  190 If.,  [p.  475.] 

73 


Panama  Canal 


Colombia's  Ulterior  Design 

The  naked  meaning  of  this  report  is  that  Co- 
lombia proposed  to  wait  until,  by  the  enforcement 
of  a forfeiture  repugnant  to  the  ideas  of  justice 
which  obtain  in  every  civilized  nation,  the  property 
and  rights  of  the  New  Panama  Canal  Company 
could  be  confiscated. — Special  message  to  Con- 
gress, Jan.  4>  1904-  [p.  749.] 


Recognition  of  Panama 

I confidently  maintain  that  the  recognition  of 
the  Republic  of  Panama  was  an  act  justified  by  the 
interests  of  collective  civilization.  If  ever  a gov- 
ernment could  be  said  to  have  received  a mandate 
from  civilization  to  effect  an  object  the  accom- 
plishment of  which  was  demanded  in  the  interest 
of  mankind,  the  United  States  holds  that  position 
with  regard  to  the  interoceanic  canal.  Since  our 
purpose  to  build  the  canal  was  definitely  announced, 
there  have  come  from  all  quarters  assurances  of  ap- 
proval and  encouragement,  in  which  even  Colombia 
herself  at  one  time  participated;  and  to  general 
assurances  were  added  specific  acts  and  declarations. 
74 


Panama  Canal 


The  Republics  assembled  at  the  International 
Conference  of  Mexico  applaud  the  purpose  of  the 
United  States  Government  to  construct  an  inter- 
oceanic  canal,  and  acknowledge  that  this  work  will 
not  only  be  worthy  of  the  greatness  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  but  also  in  the  highest  sense  a work  of 
civilization,  and  to  the  greatest  degree  beneficial 
to  the  development  of  commerce  between  the 
American  States  and  the  other  countries  of  the 
world. 

Among  those  who  signed  this  resolution  on  be- 
half of  their  respective  governments  was  General 
Reyes,  the  delegate  of  Colombia.  Little  could  it 
have  been  foreseen  that  two  years  later  the  Colom- 
bian Government,  led  astray  by  false  allurements  of 
selfish  advantage,  and  forgetful  alike  of  its  inter- 
national obligations  and  of  the  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities of  sovereignty,  would  thwart  the  efforts 
of  the  United  States  to  enter  upon  and  complete  a 
work  which  the  nations  of  America,  re-echoing  the 
sentiment  of  the  nations  of  Europe,  had  pro- 
nounced to  be  not  only  “worthy  of  the  greatness 
of  the  American  people,”  but  also  “in  the  highest 
sense  a work  of  civilization.” 

That  our  position  as  the  mandatary  of  civiliza- 
tion has  been  by  no  means  misconceived  is  shown 
75 


Panama  Canal 


by  the  promptitude  with  which  the  powers  have, 
one  after  another,  followed  our  lead  in  recognizing 
Panama  as  an  independent  State. — Special  mes- 
sage to  Congress,  Jan.  b , 190J+.  [p.  752.] 


76 


CUBA 


Our  Treatment  of  Her  Unprecedented 

BUT  on  the  20th  of  next  month  Cuba  becomes 
a free  republic,  and  we  turn  over  to  the 
islanders  the  control  of  their  own  government.  It 
would  be  very  difficult  to  find  a parallel  in  the  con- 
duct of  any  other  great  State  that  has  occupied 
such  a position  as  ours.  We  have  kept  our  word 
and  done  our  duty,  just  as  an  honest  individual 
in  private  life  keeps  his  word  and  does  his  duty. 

Cuba’s  position  makes  it  necessary  that  her  po- 
litical relations  with  us  should  differ  from  her 
political  relations  with  other  powers.  This  fact 
has  been  formulated  by  us  and  accepted  by  the 
Cubans  in  the  Platt  amendments.  It  follows  as  a 
corollary  that  where  the  Cubans  have  thus  assumed 
a position  of  peculiar  relationship  to  our  political 
system  they  must  similarly  stand  in  a peculiar  rela- 
tionship to  our  economic  system. — Charleston 
Exposition,  April,  1902.  [p.  23.] 

77 


PHILIPPINES 


Problem  to  Which  the  Spanish  War  Gave  Rise 

THE  Spanish  War  itself  was  an  easy  task,  but  it 
left  us  certain  other  tasks  which  were  much 
more  difficult.  One  of  these  tasks  was  that  of  dealing 
with  the  Philippines.  The  easy  thing  to  do — the 
thing  which  appealed  not  only  to  lazy  and  selfish 
men,  but  to  very  many  good  men  whose  thought  did 
not  drive  down  to  the  root  of  things- — was  to  leave 
the  islands.  Had  we  done  this,  a period  of  wild  chaos 
would  have  supervened,  and  then  some  stronger 
power  would  have  stepped  in  and  seized  the  islands 
and  have  taken  up  the  task  which  we  in  such  a case 
would  have  flinched  from  performing.  A less  easy, 
but  infinitely  more  absurd  course,  would  have  been 
to  leave  the  islands  ourselves,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  assert  that  we  would  not  permit  anyone  else  to 
interfere  with  them.  This  particular  course  would 
have  combined  all  the  possible  disadvantages  of 
every  other  course  which  was  advocated.  It  would 
78 


Philippines 

have  placed  us  in  a humiliating  position,  because 
when  the  actual  test  came  it  would  have  been  quite 
out  of  the  question  for  us,  after  some  striking  deed 
of  savagery  had  occurred  in  the  islands,  to  stand 
by  and  prevent  the  re-entry  of  civilization  into 
them ; while  the  mere  fact  of  our  having  threat- 
ened thus  to  guarantee  the  local  tyrants  and  wrong- 
doers against  outside  interference  by  ourselves  or 
others,  would  have  put  a premium  upon  every 
species  of  tyranny  and  anarchy  within  the  islands. 
— Hartford,  Conn.,  Aug.  22,  1902.  [p.  92.] 

Individual  Liberty  Possible  Under  Enlightened 
Government  Only 

But  our  armies  do  more  than  bring  peace,  do 
more  than  bring  order.  They  bring  freedom.  Re- 
member always  that  the  independence  of  a tribe  or 
a community  may,  and  often  does,  have  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  freedom  of  the  individual 
in  that  tribe  or  community.  There  are  now  in 
Asia  and  Africa  scores  of  despotic  monarchies, 
each  of  which  is  independent,  and  in  no  one  of 
which  is  there  the  slightest  vestige  of  freedom  for 
the  individual  man.  Scant  indeed  is  the  gain  to 
mankind  from  the  “independence”  of  a blood- 
79 


Philippines 

stained  tyrant  who  rules  over  abject  and  brutalized 
slaves.  But  great  is  the  gain  to  humanity  which 
follows  the  steady  though  slow  introduction  of  the 
orderly  liberty,  the  law-abiding  freedom  of  the 
individual,  which  is  the  only  sure  foundation  upon 
which  national  independence  can  be  built.  Wher- 
ever in  the  Philippines  the  insurrection  has  been 
definitely  and  finally  put  down,  there  the  indi- 
vidual Filipino  already  enjoys  such  freedom,  such 
personal  liberty  under  our  rule,  as  he  could  never 
even  have  dreamed  of  under  the  rule  of  an  “inde- 
pendent” Aguinaldian  oligarchy. — Arlington,  Va., 
May  30,  1902.  [p.  65.] 

High  Standard  of  American  and  Native  Officials 

The  utmost  care  has  been  exercised  in  choosing 
the  best  type  of  Americans  for  the  high  civil  posi- 
tions, and  the  actual  work  of  administration  has 
been  done,  so  far  as  possible,  by  native  Filipino 
officials  serving  under  these  Americans.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  effort  has  been  wonderful.  Never  has 
this  country  had  a more  upright  or  an  abler  body 
of  public  representatives  than  Governor  Taft,  Vice- 
Governor  Wright,  and  their  associates  and  sub- 
ordinates in  the  Philippine  Islands.  It  is  a very 
80 


Philippines 

difficult  matter,  practically,  to  apply  the  prin- 
ciples of  an  orderly  free  government  to  an  Oriental 
people  struggling  upward  out  of  barbarism  and 
subjection.  It  is  a task  requiring  infinite  firmness, 
patience,  tact,  broad-mindedness.  All  these  quali- 
ties, and  the  countless  others  necessary,  have  been 
found  in  the  civil  and  military  officials. — Hartford, 
Conn.,  Aug.  22,  1902.  [p.  95.] 

Public  Order  and  Private  Liberty 

But  the  islands  have  never  been  as  orderly,  as 
peaceful,  or  as  prosperous  as  now ; and  in  no  other 
Oriental  country,  whether  ruled  by  Asiatics  or 
Europeans,  is  there  anything  approaching  to  the 
amount  of  individual  liberty  and  of  self-govern- 
ment which  our  rule  has  brought  to  the  Filipinos. — 
Banquet  to  Gerd.  Wright,  Memphis,  Term.,  Nov. 
19,  1902.  [p.  208.] 

Was  Not  an  Easy  Task 

In  the  Philippines  the  problem  was  one  of  great 
complexity.  There  was  an  insurrectionary  party 
claiming  to  represent  the  people  of  the  islands  and 
putting  forth  their  claim  with  a certain  specious- 
81 


Philippines 

ness  which  deceived  no  small  number  of  excellent 
men  here  at  home,  and  which  afforded  to  yet  others 
a chance  to  arouse  a factious  party  spirit  against 
the  President.  Of  course,  looking  back,  it  is  now 
easy  to  see  that  it  would  have  been  both  absurd  and 
wicked  to  abandon  the  Philippine  Archipelago  and 
let  the  scores  of  different  tribes — Christian,  Mo- 
hammedan, and  pagan,  in  every  stage  of  semi- 
civilization and  Asiatic  barbarism — turn  the  islands 
into  a welter  of  bloody  savagery,  with  the  absolute 
certainty  that  some  strong  power  would  have  to 
step  in  and  take  possession.  But  though  now  it  is 
easy  enough  to  see  that  our  duty  was  to  stay  in  the 
islands,  to  put  down  the  insurrection  by  force  of 
arms,  and  then  to  establish  freedom-giving  civil 
government,  it  needed  genuine  statesmanship  to 
see  this  and  to  act  accordingly  at  the  time  of  the 
first  revolt. — Canton,  Ohio,  Jan.  27,  1903.  [p. 

238.] 

McKinley  and  the  Philippines;  His  Promises 
Fulfilled 

McKinley  said:  “That  Congress  will  provide 
for  them  a government  which  will  bring  them  bless- 
ings, which  will  promote  their  material  interests  as 
82 


Philippines 

well  as  advance  their  people  in  the  path  of  civiliza- 
tion and  intelligence,  I confidently  believe.  They 
will  not  be  governed  as  vassals  or  serfs  or  slaves. 
They  will  be  given  a government  of  liberty,  regu- 
lated by  law,  honestly  administered,  without  op- 
pressing exactions,  taxation  without  tyranny,  jus- 
tice without  bribe,  education  without  distinction 
of  social  condition,  freedom  of  religious  worship, 
and  protection  in  ‘life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.’  ” 

What  he  said  then  lay  in  the  realm  of  promise. 
Now  it  lies  in  the  realm  of  positive  performance. — 
Fargo,  N.  D.,  Apl.  7,  1903.  [p.  311.] 

Our  Administration  Accomplishes  the  Wishes  of 
the  Greatest  of  the  Native  Patriots 

Remember  always  that  in  the  Philippines  the 
American  Government  has  tried  and  is  trying  to 
carry  out  exactly  what  the  greatest  genius  and 
most  revered  patriot  ever  known  in  the  Philippine 
Islands — Jose  Rizal — steadfastly  advocated.  Tins 
man,  shortly  before  his  death,  in  a message  to  his 
countrymen,  under  date  of  December  16,  1896, 
condemned  unsparingly  the  insurrection  of  Agui- 
naldo,  terminated  just  before  our  navy  appeared 
83 


Philippines 

upon  the  scene,  and  pointed  out  the  path  his  people 
should  follow  to  liberty  and  enlightenment.  Speak- 
ing of  the  insurrection  and  of  the  pretence  that 
Filipino  independence  of  a wholesome  character 
could  thereby  be  obtained,  he  wrote: 

“When,  in  spite  of  my  advice,  a movement  was 
begun,  I offered  of  my  own  accord,  not  only  my 
services,  but  my  life  and  even  my  good  name  to  be 
used  in  any  way  they  might  believe  effective  in 
stifling  the  rebellion.  I thought  of  the  disaster 
which  would  follow  the  success  of  the  revolution, 
and  I deemed  myself  fortunate  if  by  any  sacrifice 
I could  block  the  progress  of  such  a useless 
calamity. 

“My  countrymen,  I have  given  proof  that  I was 
one  who  sought  liberty  for  our  country  and  I still 
seek  it.  But  as  a first  step  I insisted  upon  the 
development  of  the  people  in  order  that,  by  means 
of  education  and  of  labor,  they  might  acquire  the 
proper  individual  character  and  force  which  would 
make  them  worthy  of  it.  In  my  writings  I have 
commended  to  you  study  and  civic  virtue,  without 
which  our  redemption  does  not  exist.  ...  I 
cannot  do  less  than  condemn,  and  I do  condemn,  this 
absurd  and  savage  insurrection  planned  behind  my 
back,  which  dishonors  us  before  the  Filipinos  and 
84 


Philippines 

discredits  us  with  those  who  otherwise  would  argue 
in  our  behalf.  I abominate  its  cruelties  and  dis- 
avow any  kind  of  connection  with  it,  regretting 
with  all  the  sorrow  of  my  soul  that  these  reckless 
men  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  deceived.  Let 
them  return,  then,  to  their  homes,  and  may  God 
pardon  those  who  have  acted  in  bad  faith.” 

This  message  embodied  precisely  and  exactly  the 
avowed  policy  upon  which  the  American  Govern- 
ment has  acted  in  the  Philippines.  What  the 
patriot  Rizal  said  with  such  force  in  speaking  of 
the  insurrection  before  we  came  to  the  islands  ap- 
plies with  tenfold  greater  force  to  those  who  fool- 
ishly or  wickedly  opposed  the  mild  and  beneficent 
government  we  were  instituting  in  the  islands.  The 
judgment  of  the  martyred  public  servant,  Rizal, 
whose  birthday  the  Philippine  people  celebrate,  and 
whom  they  worship  as  their  hero  and  ideal,  sets 
forth  the  duty  of  American  sovereignty ; a duty 
from  which  the  American  people  will  never  flinch. 
—Fargo,  N.  D.,  Apl.  7, 1903.  [p.  317.] 

The  Result  a Work  of  Constructive  Statesmanship 

Taking  the  work  of ythe  army  and  the  civil  au- 
thorities together,  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
85 


Philippines 

anywhere  else  in  modern  times  the  world  has  seen 
a better  example  of  real  constructive  statesmanship 
than  our  people  have  given  in  the  Philippine  Isl- 
ands. High  praise  should  also  be  given  those 
Filipinos,  in  the  aggregate  very  numerous,  who 
have  accepted  the  new  conditions  and  joined  with 
our  representatives  to  work  with  hearty  good-will 
for  the  welfare  of  the  islands. — Message  second 
session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  629.] 

History  Presents  No  Parallel 

History  may  safely  be  challenged  to  show  a 
single  instance  in  which  a masterful  race  such  as 
ours,  having  been  forced  by  the  exigencies  of  war 
to  take  possession  of  an  alien  land,  has  behaved  to 
its  inhabitants  with  the  disinterested  zeal  for  their 
progress  that  our  people  have  shown  in  the  Phil- 
ippines.— Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Con- 
gress. [p.  669.] 

Our  Own  Advantage  in  the  Result 

Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  while  we  have 
thus  acted  in  the  interest  of  the  islanders  them- 
selves, we  have  also  helped  our  own  people.  Our 
interests  are  as  great  in  the  Pacific  as  in  the  At- 

86 


Philippines 

lantic.  The  welfare  of  California,  Oregon,  and 
Washington  is  as  vital  to  the  Nation  as  the  wel- 
fare of  New  England,  New  York,  and  the  South 
Atlantic  States.  The  awakening  of  the  Orient 
means  very  much  to  all  the  nations  of  Christen- 
dom, commercially  no  less  than  politically. — Hart- 
ford, Conn.,  August  22,  1902.  [p.  97.] 


87 


LYNCHING 


Views  Similar  to  Lincoln's 

THIS  matter  of  lynching  would  be  a terrible 
thing  even  if  it  stopped  with  the  lynching  of 
men  guilty  of  the  inhuman  and  hideous  crime  of 
rape;  but  as  a matter  of  fact,  lawlessness  of  this 
type  never  does  stop  and  never  can  stop  in  such 
fashion.  Every  violent  man  in  the  community  is 
encouraged  by  every  case  of  lynching  in  which  the 
lynchers  go  unpunished  to  himself  take  the  law  into 
his  own  hands  whenever  it  suits  his  own  convenience. 
In  the  same  way  the  use  of  torture  by  the  mob  in 
certain  cases  is  sure  to  spread  until  it  is  applied 
more  or  less  indiscriminately  in  other  cases.  The 
spirit  of  lawlessness  grows  with  what  it  feeds  on, 
and  when  mobs  with  impunity  lynch  criminals  for 
one  cause,  they  are  certain  to  begin  to  lynch  real 
or  alleged  criminals  for  other  causes.  In  the  recent 
cases  of  lynching,  over  three-fourths  were  not  for 
rape  at  all,  but  for  murder,  attempted  murder,  and 
even  less  heinous  offences.  Moreover,  the  history 
88 


Lynching 

of  these  recent  cases  shows  the  awful  fact  that  when 
the  minds  of  men  are  habituated  to  the  use  of 
torture  by  lawless  bodies  to  avenge  crimes  of  a 
peculiarly  revolting  description,  other  lawless 
bodies  will  use  torture  in  order  to  punish  crimes  of 
an  ordinary  type.  Surely  no  patriot  can  fail  to 
see  the  fearful  brutalization  and  debasement  which 
the  indulgence  of  such  a spirit  and  such  practices 
inevitably  portends. — Letter  to  Gov . Durbin,  Aug. 
6,  1903.  [p.  527.] 


89 


GENERAL  WOOD 


President  McKinley's  Choice  a Good  One 

PRESIDENT  McKINLEY,  with  his  usual  sin- 
gular sagacity  in  the  choice  of  agents,  selected 
in  General  Leonard  Wood  the  man  of  all  others  best 
fit  to  bring  the  island  through  its  uncertain  period 
of  preparation  for  independence,  and  the  result  of 
his  wisdom  was  shown  when  the  island  became  in 
name  and  in  fact  a free  Republic,  for  it  started 
with  a better  equipment  and  under  more  favorable 
conditions  than  had  ever  previously  been  the  case 
with  any  Spanish- American  commonwealth. — Canr- 
ton,  Ohio,  Jan.  27,  1903.  [p.  238.] 

His  Service  a Sacrifice 

Leonard  Wood  four  years  ago  went  down  to 
Cuba,  has  served  there  ever  since,  has  rendered  her 
literally  invaluable  service;  a man  who  through 
those  four  years  thought  of  nothing  else,  did  noth- 
ing else,  save  to  try  to  bring  up  the  standard  of 
90 


General  Wood 


political  and  social  life  in  that  island,  to  clean  it 
physically  and  morally,  to  make  justice  even  and 
fair  in  it,  to  found  a school  system  which  should  be 
akin  to  our  own,  to  teach  the  people  after  four 
centuries  of  misrule  that  there  were  such  things 
as  governmental  righteousness  and  honesty  and 
fair  play  for  all  men  on  their  merits  as  men.  He 
did  all  this.  He  is  a man  of  slender  means.  He  did 
this  on  his  pay  as  an  army  officer.  As  Governor  of 
the  island  sixty  millions  of  dollars  passed  through 
his  hands,  and  he  came  out  having  been  obliged  to 
draw  on  his  slender  capital  in  order  that  he  might 
come  out  even  when  he  left  the  island.  Credit  to 
him?  Yes,  in  a way.  In  another,  no  particular 
credit,  because  he  was  built  so  that  he  could  do 
nothing  else.  He  devoted  himself  as  disinterestedly 
to  the  good  of  the  Cuban  people  in  all  their  rela- 
tions as  man  could.  He  has  come  back  here,  and 
has  been  attacked,  forsooth,  by  people  who  are 
not  merely  unworthy  of  having  their  names  coupled 
with  his,  but  who  are  incapable  of  understanding 
the  motives  that  have  spurred  him  on  to  bring 
honor  to  this  republic. — Harvard  Commencement, 
June  25,  1902.  [p.  81.] 


91 


General  Wood 


How  Other  Countries  Reward  such  Service 

When  in  England  they  get  a man  to  do  what 
Lord  Cromer  did  in  Egypt,  when  a man  returns  as 
Lord  Kitchener  will  return  from  South  Africa,  they 
give  him  a peerage  and  he  receives  large  and 
tangible  reward.  But  our  Cromers,  our  men  of 
that  stamp,  come  back  to  this  country,  and  if  they 
are  fortunate,  they  go  back  to  private  life  with 
the  privilege  of  taking  up  as  best  they  can  the 
strings  left  loose  when  they  severed  their  old  con- 
nections; and  if  fortune  does  not  favor  them  they 
are  accused  of  maladversion  in  office — not  an  accu- 
sation that  hurts  them,  but  an  accusation  that 
brands  with  infamy  every  man  who  makes  it,  and 
that  reflects  but  ill  on  the  country  in  which  it  is 
made. — Harvard  Commencement,  June  25,  1902. 

[p.  80.] 


92 


TARIFF 


Present  System  Satisfactory  to  the  Majority  of 
the  People 

THERE  is  general  acquiescence  in  our  present 
tariff  system  as  a national  policy.  The  first 
requisite  to  our  prosperity  is  the  continuity  and 
stability  of  this  economic  policy. — Presidential  mes- 
sage first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress.  [p. 
550.] 

Policy  Based  on  Workingmans  Advantage 

The  general  tariff  policy  to  which,  without 
regard  to  changes  in  detail,  I believe  this  country 
to  be  irrevocably  committed,  is  fundamentally 
based  upon  ample  recognition  of  the  difference  in 
labor  cost  here  and  abroad;  in  other  words,  the 
recognition  of  the  need  for  full  development  of  the 
intelligence,  the  comfort,  the  high  standard  of 
civilized  living  and  the  inventive  genius  of  the 
93 


Tariff 

American  workingman  as  compared  to  the  working- 
man of  any  other  country  in  the  world. — Logans- 
port,  Ind.,  Sept.  2 3 , 1902.  [p.  195.] 

No  Hardshell  Views 

Belief  in  the  wisdom  of  a protective  tariff  is  in 
no  way  inconsistent  with  frankly  admitting  the 
desirability  of  changing  a set  of  schedules,  when 
from  any  cause  such  change  is  in  the  interests  of 
the  Nation  as  a whole — and  our  tariff  policy  is 
designed  to  favor  the  interests  of  the  Nation  as  a 
whole  and  not  those  of  any  particular  set  of  indi- 
viduals save  as  an  incident  to  this  building  up  of 
national  well-being.  There  are  two  or  three  differ- 
ent methods  by  which  it  will  be  possible  to  provide 
such  readjustment  without  any  shock  to  the  busi- 
ness world. — Logansport,  Ind.,  Sept.  23,  1902. 
[p.  193.] 

Modifications  Should  Be  Consistent  and 
Broad-gauge 

Of  course  in  making  any  changes  we  should  have 
to  proceed  in  accordance  with  certain  fixed  and 
definite  principles,  and  the  most  important  of  these 
94) 


Tariff 

is  an  avowed  determination  to  protect  the  interests 
of  the  American  producer,  be  he  business  man, 
wage-worker,  or  farmer.  The  one  consideration 
which  must  never  be  omitted  in  a tariff  change  is 
the  imperative  need  of  preserving  the  American 
standard  of  living  for  the  American  workingman. 
The  tariff  rate  must  never  fall  below  that  which 
will  protect  the  American  workingman  by  allowing 
for  the  difference  between  the  general  labor  cost 
here  and  abroad. — Logansport,  Ind.,  Sept.  23, 
1902.  [p.  194.] 

A Business,  Not  a Partisan  Matter 

What  we  really  need  in  this  country  is  to  treat 
the  tariff  as  a business  proposition  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  interests  of  the  country  as  a whole, 
and  not  from  the  stand-point  of  the  temporary 
needs  of  any  political  party.  It  surely  ought  not 
to  be  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  extreme  unwis- 
dom, from  a business  stand-point,  from  the  stand- 
point of  national  prosperity,  of  violent  and  radical 
changes  amounting  to  the  direct  upsetting  of  tariff 
policies  at  intervals  of  every  few  years.  A nation 
like  ours  can  adjust  its  business  after  a fashion  to 
any  kind  of  tariff.  But  neither  our  nation  nor  any 
95 


Tariff 

other  can  stand  the  ruinous  policy  of  readjusting 
its  business  to  radical  changes  in  the  tariff  at  short 
intervals.  This  is  more  true  now  than  ever  it  was 
before,  for  owing  to  the  immense  extent  and  variety 
of  our  products,  the  tariff  schedules  of  to-day 
carry  rates  of  duty  on  more  than  four  thousand 
articles.  Continual  sweeping  changes  in  such  a 
tariff,  touching  so  intimately  the  commercial  inter- 
ests of  the  nation  which  stands  as  one  of  the  two  or 
three  greatest  in  the  whole  industrial  world,  cannot 
but  be  disastrous.  Yet  on  the  other  hand  where  the 
industrial  needs  of  the  nation  shift  as  rapidly  as 
they  do  with  us,  it  is  a matter  of  prime  importance 
that  we  should  be  able  to  readjust  our  economic 
policy  as  rapidly  as  possible  and  with  as  little 
friction  as  possible  to  these  needs. 

We  need  a scheme  which  will  enable  us  to  provide 
a reapplication  of  the  principle  to  the  changed 
conditions.  The  problem  therefore  is  to  devise  some 
method  by  which  these  shifting  needs  can  be  recog- 
nized and  the  necessary  read j ustments  of  duties  pro- 
vided without  forcing  the  entire  business  commu- 
nity, and  therefore  the  entire  Nation,  to  submit  to  a 
violent  surgical  operation,  the  mere  threat  of  which, 
and  still  more  the  accomplished  fact  of  which, 
would  probably  paralyze  for  a considerable  time  all 

96 


Tariff 

the  industries  of  the  country.  It  is  on  every  account 
most  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  this  problem  can 
be  solved  in  some  manner  into  which  partisanship 
shall  enter  as  a purely  secondary  consideration,  if 
at  all;  that  is,  in  some  manner  which  shall  provide 
for  an  earnest  effort  by  non-partisan  inquiry  and 
action  to  secure  any  changes  the  need  of  which  is 
indicated  by  the  effect  found  to  proceed  from  a 
given  rate  of  duty  on  a given  article;  its  effect, 
if  any,  as  regards  the  creation  of  a substantial 
monopoly ; its  effect  upon  domestic  prices,  upon  the 
revenue  of  the  government,  upon  importations 
from  abroad,  upon  home  productions,  and  upon 
consumption. — Logansport,  Ind.,  Sept.  £3,  1902. 
[p.  191.] 

Reciprocity  and  Protection 

Reciprocity  must  be  treated  as  the  handmaiden 
of  protection.  Our  first  duty  is  to  see  that  the  pro- 
tection granted  by  the  tariff  in  every  case  where  it 
is  needed  is  maintained,  and  that  reciprocity  be 
sought  for  so  far  as  it  can  safely  be  done  without 
injury  to  our  home  industries.  Just  how  far  this 
is  must  be  determined  according  to  the  individual 
case,  remembering  always  that  every  application 
of  our  tariff  policy  to  meet  our  shifting  national 

97 


Tariff 

needs  must  be  conditioned  upon  the  cardinal  fact 
that  the  duties  must  never  be  reduced  below  the 
point  that  will  cover  the  difference  between  the 
labor  cost  here  and  abroad.  The  well-being  of  the 
wage-worker  is  a prime  consideration  of  our  entire 
policy  of  economic  legislation. — Message  first  ses- 
sion Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  551.] 

A Poor  Weapon  Against  the  Trusts 

One  point  we  must  steadily  keep  in  mind.  The 
question  of  tariff  revision,  speaking  broadly,  stands 
wholly  apart  from  the  question  of  dealing  with  the 
trusts.  No  change  in  tariff  duties  can  have  any 
substantial  effect  in  solving  the  so-called  trust  prob- 
lem. Certain  great  trusts  or  great  corporations  are 
wholly  unaffected  by  the  tariff.  Practically  all  the 
others  that  are  of  any  importance  have  as  a matter 
of  fact  numbers  of  smaller  American  competitors ; 
and  of  course  a change  in  the  tariff  which  would 
work  injury  to  the  large  corporation  would  work 
not  merely  injury  but  destruction  to  its  smaller 
competitors ; and  equally  of  course  such  a change 
would  mean  disaster  to  all  the  wage-workers  con- 
nected with  either  the  large  or  the  small  corpora- 
tion. From  the  stand-point  of  those  interested  in 

98 


Tariff 

the  solution  of  the  trust  problem  such  a change 
would  therefore  merely  mean  that  the  trust  was 
relieved  of  the  competition  of  its  weaker  American 
competitors,  and  thrown  only  into  competition  with 
foreign  competitors;  and  that  the  first  effort  to 
meet  this  new  competition  would  be  made  by  cut- 
ting down  wages,  and  would  therefore  be  primarily 
at  the  cost  of  labor.  In  the  case  of  some  of  our 
greatest  trusts  such  a change  might  confer  upon 
them  a positive  benefit.  Speaking  broadly,  it  is 
evident  that  the  changes  in  the  tariff  will  affect  the 
trusts  for  weal  or  for  woe  simply  as  they  affect  the 
whole  country.  The  tariff  affects  trusts  only  as  it 
affects  all  other  interests.  It  makes  all  these  inter- 
ests, large  or  small,  profitable ; and  its  benefits  can 
be  taken  from  the  large  only  under  penalty  of 
taking  them  from  the  small  also. — Minneapolis, 
Minn.,  Apl.  If.,  1903.  [p.  300.] 

An  Attack  Through  the  Tariff  on  the  Trusts 
Equally  Dangerous  to  Their  Smaller  Competitors 

The  trusts  can  be  damaged  by  depriving  them 
of  the  benefits  of  a protective  tariff,  only  on  con- 
dition of  damaging  all  their  smaller  competitors, 
and  all  the  wage-workers  employed  in  the  industry. 

99 


Tariff 

This  point  is  very  important,  and  it  is  desirable 
to  avoid  any  misunderstanding  concerning  it.  I 
am  not  now  considering  whether  or  not,  on  grounds 
totally  unconnected  with  the  trusts,  it  would  be  well 
to  lower  the  duties  on  various  schedules,  either  by 
direct  legislation  or  by  legislation  or  treaties  de- 
signed to  secure  as  an  offset  reciprocal  advantages 
from  the  nations  with  which  we  trade.  My  point 
is  that  changes  in  the  tariff  would  have  little  ap- 
preciable effect  on  the  trusts  save  as  they  shared 
in  the  general  harm  or  good  proceeding  from  such 
changes.  No  tariff  change  would  help  one  of  our 
smaller  corporations,  or  one  of  our  private  indi- 
viduals in  business,  still  less  one  of  our  wage- 
workers, as  against  a large  corporation  in  the  same 
business ; on  the  contrary,  if  it  bore  heavily  on  the 
large  corporation  it  would  inevitably  be  felt  still 
more  by  that  corporation’s  weaker  rivals,  while  any 
injurious  result  would  of  necessity  be  shared  by 
both  the  employer  and  the  employed. — Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  Sept.  20,  1902.  [p.  179.] 


100 


NAVY 


Must  Be  Free  from  “ Politics ” 

THERE  must  be  no  partisan  politics  in  the  army 
or  the  navy  of  the  United  States.  All  that 
concerns  us  to  know  about  any  general  or  admiral, 
about  a mighty  captain  by  sea  or  by  land,  is  whether 
he  is  a thoroughly  fit  commander  of  men  and  loyal 
to  the  country  as  a whole. — Memphis,  Tenn.,  Nov., 
1902.  [p.  209.] 

General  Staff  Needed 

It  is  eminently  desirable,  however,  that  there 
should  be  provided  a naval  general  staff  on  lines 
similar  to  those  of  the  General  Staff  lately  created 
for  the  army.  Within  the  Navy  Department  itself 
the  needs  of  the  service  have  brought  about  a sys- 
tem under  which  the  duties  of  a general  staff  are 
partially  performed ; for  the  Bureau  of  Navigation 
has  under  its  direction  the  War  College,  the  Office 
of  Naval  Intelligence,  and  the  Board  of  Inspection, 
101 


Navy 

and  has  been  in  close  touch  with  the  General  Board 
of  the  navy.  But  though  under  the  excellent  offi- 
cers at  their  head  these  boards  and  bureaus  do 
good  work,  they  have  not  the  authority  of  a general 
staff,  and  have  not  sufficient  scope  to  insure  a 
proper  readiness  for  emergencies.  We  need  the 
establishment  by  law  of  a body  of  trained  officers, 
who  shall  exercise  a systematic  control  of  the  mili- 
tary affairs  of  the  navy,  and  be  authorized  advisers 
of  the  Secretary  concerning  it. — Message  second 
session  Fifty-eighth  Congress,  [p.  692.] 

Efficient  Navy  Means  Peace 

The  entire  country  is  vitally  interested  in  the 
navy,  because  an  efficient  navy  of  adequate  size  is 
not  only  the  best  guarantee  of  peace,  but  is  also 
the  surest  means  for  seeing  that  if  war  does  come 
the  result  shall  be  honorable  to  our  good  name  and 
favorable  to  our  national  interests. — Haverhill, 
Mass.,  Aug.  2 6 , 1902.  [p.  118.] 

We  Must  Not  Turn  Back 

The  work  of  upbuilding  the  navy  must  be  stead- 
ily continued.  No  one  point  of  our  policy,  foreign 
or  domestic,  is  more  important  than  this  to  the 
102 


Navy 

honor  and  material  welfare,  and  above  all  to  the 
peace,  of  our  Nation  in  the  future.  Whether  we 
desire  it  or  not,  we  must  henceforth  recognize  that 
we  have  international  duties  no  less  than  inter- 
national rights.  Even  if  our  flag  were  hauled 
down  in  the  Philippines  and  Porto  Rico,  even  if 
we  decided  not  to  build  the  Isthmian  Canal,  we 
should  need  a thoroughly  trained  navy  of  adequate 
size,  or  else  be  prepared  definitely  and  for  all  time 
to  abandon  the  idea  that  our  Nation  is  among  those 
whose  sons  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships.  Unless  our 
commerce  is  always  to  be  carried  in  foreign  bot- 
toms, wre  must  have  war  craft  to  protect  it. 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  the  American  people  have 
no  thought  of  abandoning  the  path  upon  which 
they  have  entered,  and  especially  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  building  of  the  Isthmian  Canal  is  fast 
becoming  one  of  the  matters  which  the  whole  people 
are  united  in  demanding,  it  is  imperative  that  our 
navy  should  be  put  and  kept  in  the  highest  state 
of  efficiency,  and  should  be  made  to  answer  to  our 
growing  needs.  So  far  from  being  in  any  way  a 
provocation  to  war,  an  adequate  and  highly  trained 
navy  is  the  best  guarantee  against  war,  the  cheapest 
and  most  effective  peace  insurance.  The  cost  of 
building  and  maintaining  such  a navy  represents 
103 


Navy 

the  very  lightest  premium  for  insuring  peace  which 
this  Nation  can  possibly  pay. 

Probably  no  other  great  nation  in  the  world  is  so 
anxious  for  peace  as  we  are.  There  is  not  a single 
civilized  power  which  has  anything  whatever  to 
fear  from  aggressiveness  on  our  part.  All  we  want 
is  peace ; and  toward  this  end  we  wish  to  be  able  to 
secure  the  same  respect  for  our  rights  from  others 
which  we  are  eager  and  anxious  to  extend  to  their 
rights  in  return,  to  insure  fair  treatment  to  us  com- 
mercially, and  to  guarantee  the  safety  of  the 
American  people. 

Our  people  intend  to  abide  by  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine, and  to  insist  upon  it  as  the  one  sure  means  of 
securing  the  peace  of  the  Western  Hemisphere.  The 
navy  offers  us  the  only  means  of  making  our  insist- 
ence upon  the  Monroe  Doctrine  anything  but  a 
subject  of  derision  to  whatever  nation  chooses  to 
disregard  it.  We  desire  the  peace  which  comes  as 
of  right  to  the  just  man  armed;  not  the  peace 
granted  on  terms  of  ignominy  to  the  craven  and 
the  weakling. 

It  is  not  possible  to  improvise  a navy  after  war 
breaks  out.  The  ships  must  be  built  and  the  men 
trained  long  in  advance.  Some  auxiliary  vessels 
can  be  turned  into  makeshifts  which  will  do  in 
104 


Navy 

default  of  any  better  for  the  minor  work,  and  a 
proportion  of  raw  men  can  be  mixed  with  the 
highly  trained,  their  shortcomings  being  made 
good  by  the  skill  of  their  fellows ; but  the  efficient 
fighting  force  of  the  navy,  when  pitted  against  an 
equal  opponent,  will  be  found  almost  exclusively  in 
the  war-ships  that  have  been  regularly  built  and 
in  the  officers  and  men  who  through  years  of  faith- 
ful performance  of  sea  duty  have  been  trained  to 
handle  their  formidable  but  complex  and  delicate 
weapons  with  the  highest  efficiency.  In  the  late  war 
with  Spain  the  ships  that  dealt  the  decisive  blows 
at  Manila  and  Santiago  had  been  launched  from 
two  to  fourteen  years,  and  they  were  able  to  do  as 
they  did  because  the  men  in  the  conning-towers, 
the  gun-turrets,  and  the  engine-rooms  had  through 
long  years  of  practice  at  sea  learned  how  to  do 
their  duty. 

Our  present  navy  was  begun  in  1882.  At  that 
period  our  navy  consisted  of  a collection  of  anti- 
quated wooden  ships,  already  almost  as  out  of  place 
against  modern  war-vessels  as  the  galleys  of  Alci- 
biades  and  Hamilcar — certainly  as  the  ships  of 
Tromp  and  Blake.  Nor  at  that  time  did  we  have 
men  fit  to  handle  a modern  man-of-war.  Under  the 
wise  legislation  of  the  Congress  and  the  successful 
105 


Navy 

administration  of  a succession  of  patriotic  Secre- 
taries of  the  Navy,  belonging  to  both  political 
parties,  the  work  of  upbuilding  the  navy  went  on, 
and  ships  equal  to  any  in  the  world  of  their  kind 
were  continually  added;  and  what  was  even  more 
important,  these  ships  were  exercised  at  sea  singly 
and  in  squadrons  until  the  men  aboard  them  were 
able  to  get  the  best  possible  service  out  of  them. 
The  result  was  seen  in  the  short  war  with  Spain, 
which  was  decided  with  such  rapidity  because  of  the 
infinitely  greater  preparedness  of  our  navy  than  of 
the  Spanish  navy. 

While  awarding  the  fullest  honor  to  the  men  who 
actually  commanded  and  manned  the  ships  which 
destroyed  the  Spanish  sea  forces  in  the  Philip- 
pines and  in  Cuba,  we  must  not  forget  that  an 
equal  meed  of  praise  belongs  to  those  without  whom 
neither  blow  could  have  been  struck.  The  Con- 
gressmen who  voted  years  in  advance  the  money  to 
lay  down  the  ships,  to  build  the  guns,  to  buy  the 
armor-plate ; the  Department  officials  and  the  busi- 
ness men  and  wage-workers  who  furnished  what  the 
Congress  had  authorized;  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Navy  who  asked  for  and  expended  the  appropria- 
tions ; and  finally  the  officers  who,  in  fair  weather 
and  foul,  on  actual  sea  service,  trained  and  disci- 
106 


Navy 

plined  the  crews  of  the  ships  when  there  was  no 
war  in  sight — all  are  entitled  to  a full  share  in  the 
glory  of  Manila  and  Santiago,  and  the  respect 
accorded  by  every  true  American  to  those  who 
wrought  such  signal  triumph  for  our  country. 
It  was  forethought  and  preparation  which 
secured  us  the  overwhelming  triumph  of  1898. 
— Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress. 
[p.  577.] 


Ships  Once  Built  Should  Be  Kept  in  Commission 

To  provide  battle-ships  and  cruisers  and  then 
lay  them  up,  with  the  expectation  of  leaving  them 
unmanned  until  they  are  needed  in  actual  war, 
would  be  worse  than  folly;  it  would  be  a crime 
against  the  Nation. 

To  send  any  war-ship  against  a competent  enemy 
unless  those  aboard  it  have  been  trained  by  years 
of  actual  sea  service,  including  incessant  gunnery 
practice,  would  be  to  invite  not  merely  disaster, 
but  the  bitterest  shame  and  humiliation.  Four 
thousand  additional  seamen  and  one  thousand  addi- 
tional marines  should  be  provided ; and  an  increase 
in  the  officers  should  be  provided  by  making  a large 
107 


Navy 

addition  to  the  classes  at  Annapolis. — Message  first 
session  Fifty-seventh  Congress . [p.  581.] 

Shore  Duty  by  Civilians 

Every  detail  ashore  which  can  be  performed  by 
a civilian  should  be  so  performed,  the  officer  being 
kept  for  his  special  duty  in  the  sea  service.  Above 
all,  gunnery  practice  should  be  unceasing.  It  is 
important  to  have  our  navy  of  adequate  size,  but 
it  is  even  more  important  that  ship  for  ship  it 
should  equal  in  efficiency  any  navy  in  the  world. 
This  is  possible  only  with  highly  drilled  crews  and 
officers,  and  this  in  turn  imperatively  demands  con- 
tinuous and  progressive  instruction  in  target  prac- 
tice, ship  handling,  squadron  tactics,  and  general 
discipline.  Our  ships  must  be  assembled  in  squad- 
rons actively  cruising  away  from  harbors  and  never 
long  at  anchor.  The  resulting  wear  upon  engines 
and  hulls  must  be  endured ; a battle-ship  worn  out 
in  long  training  of  officers  and  men  is  well  paid  for 
by  the  results,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  no  matter 
in  how  excellent  condition,  it  is  useless  if  the  crew 
be  not  expert. 

We  now  have  seventeen  battle-ships  appropriated 
for,  of  which  nine  are  completed  and  have  been 
108 


Navy 

commissioned  for  actual  service.  The  remaining 
eight  will  be  ready  in  from  two  to  four  years,  but 
it  will  take  at  least  that  time  to  recruit  and  train 
the  men  to  fight  them.  It  is  of  vast  concern  that 
we  have  trained  crews  ready  for  the  vessels  by  the 
time  they  are  commissioned.  Good  ships  and  good 
guns  are  simply  good  weapons,  and  the  best  weap- 
ons are  useless  save  in  the  hands  of  men  who  know 
how  to  fight  with  them.  The  men  must  be  trained 
and  drilled  under  a thorough  and  well-planned 
system  of  progressive  instruction,  while  the  recruit- 
ing must  be  carried  on  with  still  greater  vigor. 
Every  effort  must  be  made  to  exalt  the  main  func- 
tion of  the  officer — the  command  of  men.  The 
leading  graduates  of  the  Naval  Academy  should 
be  assigned  to  the  combatant  branches,  the  line  and 
marines. 

Many  of  the  essentials  of  success  are  already 
recognized  by  the  General  Board,  which,  as  the 
central  office  of  a growing  staff,  is  moving  steadily 
toward  a proper  war  efficiency  and  a proper  effi- 
ciency of  the  whole  navy,  under  the  Secretary. 
This  General  Board,  by  fostering  the  creation  of 
a general  staff,  is  providing  for  the  official  and 
then  the  general  recognition  of  our  altered  condi- 
tions as  a nation  and  of  the  true  meaning  of  a 
109 


Navy 

great  war  fleet,  which  meaning  is,  first,  the  best 
men,  and  second,  the  best  ships. 

The  Naval  Militia  forces  are  State  organiza- 
tions, and  are  trained  for  coast  service,  and  in 
event  of  war  they  will  constitute  the  inner  line  of 
defence.  They  should  receive  hearty  encourage- 
ment from  the  General  Government. 

But  in  addition  we  should  at  once  provide  for  a 
National  Naval  Reserve,  organized  and  trained 
under  the  direction  of  the  Navy  Department,  and 
subject  to  the  call  of  the  Chief  Executive  whenever 
war  becomes  imminent.  It  should  be  a real  aux- 
iliary to  the  naval  sea-going  peace  establishment, 
and  offer  material  to  be  drawn  on  at  once  for  man- 
ning our  ships  in  time  of  war.  It  should  be  com- 
posed of  graduates  of  the  Naval  Academy, 
graduates  of  the  Naval  Militia,  officers  and  crews 
of  coast-line  steamers,  ’longshore  schooners,  fishing 
vessels,  and  steam  yachts,  together  with  the  coast 
population  about  such  centres  as  life-saving  sta- 
tions and  light-houses. 

The  American  people  must  either  build  and 
maintain  an  adequate  navy  or  else  make  up  their 
minds  definitely  to  accept  a secondary  position  in 
international  affairs,  not  merely  in  political,  but  in 
commercial,  matters.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
110 


Navy 


there  is  no  surer  way  of  courting  national  disaster 
than  to  be  “opulent,  aggressive,  and  unarmed.” — 
Message  first  sesssion  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
582.] 


Ill 


MERCHANT  MARINE 


Needs  Upbuilding 

THE  condition  of  the  American  merchant 
marine  is  such  as  to  call  for  immediate 
remedial  action  by  the  Congress.  It  is  discreditable 
to  us  as  a nation  that  our  merchant  marine  should 
be  utterly  insignificant  in  comparison  to  that  of 
other  nations  which  we  overtop  in  other  forms  of 
business.  We  should  not  longer  submit  to  condi- 
tions under  which  only  a trifling  portion  of  our 
great  commerce  is  carried  in  our  own  ships.  To 
remedy  this  state  of  things  would  not  merely  serve 
to  build  up  our  shipping  interests,  but  it  would 
. also  result  in  benefit  to  all  who  are  interested  in  the 
permanent  establishment  of  a wider  market  for 
American  products,  and  would  provide  an  auxiliary 
force  for  the  navy.  Ships  work  for  their  own  coun- 
tries just  as  railroads  work  for  their  terminal 
points.  Shipping  lines,  if  established  to  the  prin- 
cipal countries  with  which  we  have  dealings,  would 
112 


Merchant  Marine 


be  of  political  as  well  as  commercial  benefit.  From 
every  stand-point  it  is  unwise  for  the  United  States 
to  continue  to  rely  upon  the  ships  of  competing 
nations  for  the  distribution  of  our  goods.  It  should 
be  made  advantageous  to  carry  American  goods 
in  American-built  ships. 

At  present  American  shipping  is  under  certain 
great  disadvantages  when  put  in  competition  with 
the  shipping  of  foreign  countries.  Many  of  the 
fast  foreign  steamships,  at  a speed  of  fourteen 
knots  or  above,  are  subsidized;  and  all  our  ships, 
sailing  vessels  and  steamers  alike,  cargo-carriers 
of  slow  speed  and  mail-carriers  of  high  speed,  have 
to  meet  the  fact  that  the  original  cost  of  building 
American  ships  is  greater  than  is  the  case  abroad; 
that  the  wages  paid  the  officers  and  seamen  are  very 
much  higher  than  those  paid  the  officers  and  seamen 
of  foreign  competing  countries ; and  that  the  stand- 
ard of  living  on  our  ships  is  far  superior  to  the 
standard  of  living  on  the  ships  of  our  commercial 
rivals. — Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Con- 
gress. [P-  553.] 


113 


ARMY— MILITIA 


General  Staff  and  National  Guard 


THE  effect  of  the  laws  providing  a General 
Staff  for  the  army  and  for  the  more  effective 
use  of  the  National  Guard  has  been  excellent. 
Great  improvement  has  been  made  in  the  efficiency 
of  our  army  in  recent  years.  Such  schools  as  those 
erected  at  Fort  Leavenworth  and  Fort  Riley  and 
the  institution  of  fall  manoeuvre  work  accomplish 
satisfactory  results.  The  good  effect  of  these 
manoeuvres  upon  the  National  Guard  is  marked, 
and  ample  appropriation  should  be  made  to  enable 
the  guardsmen  of  the  several  States  to  share  in  the 
benefit.  The  Government  should  as  soon  as  possible 
secure  suitable  permanent  camp  sites  for  military 
manoeeuvres  in  the  various  sections  of  the  country. 
The  service  thereby  rendered  not  only  to  the  Regu- 
lar Army  but  to  the  National  Guard  of  the  several 
States,  will  be  so  great  as  to  repay  many  times  over 
the  relatively  small  expense. — Message  second  ses- 
sion Fifty-eighth  Congress,  [p.  689.] 


114) 


A rmy — Militia 

Not  Size,  but  Efficiency 

It  is  not  necessary  to  increase  our  army  beyond 
its  present  size  at  this  time.  But  it  is  necessary  to 
keep  it  at  the  highest  point  of  efficiency.  The  indi- 
vidual units  who  as  officers  and  enlisted  men  com- 
pose this  army,  are,  we  have  good  reason  to 
believe,  at  least  as  efficient  as  those  of  any  other 
army  in  the  entire  world.  It  is  our  duty  to  see 
that  their  training  is  of  a kind  to  insure  the  highest 
possible  expression  of  power  to  these  units  when 
acting  in  combination. 

The  conditions  of  modern  war  are  such  as  to 
make  an  infinitely  heavier  demand  than  ever  before 
upon  the  individual  character  and  capacity  of  the 
officer  and  the  enlisted  man,  and  to  make  it  far 
more  difficult  for  men  to  act  together  with  effect. 
At  present  the  fighting  must  be  done  in  extended 
order,  which  means  that  each  man  must  act  for 
himself  and  at  the  same  time  act  in  combination 
with  others  with  whom  he  is  no  longer  in  the  old- 
fashioned  elbow-to-elbow  touch.  Under  such  con- 
ditions a few  men  of  the  highest  excellence  are 
worth  more  than  many  men  without  the  special 
skill  which  is  only  found  as  the  result  of  special 
training  applied  to  men  of  exceptional  physique 
115 


Army — Militia 

and  morale.  But  nowadays  the  most  valuable 
fighting  man  and  the  most  difficult  to  perfect  is  the 
rifleman  who  is  also  a skilful  and  daring  rider. — 
Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
584.] 

Calvary  and  Mounted  Infantry 

The  proportion  of  our  cavalry  regiments  has 
wisely  been  increased.  The  American  cavalryman, 
trained  to  manoeuvre  and  fight  with  equal  facility  on 
foot  and  on  horseback,  is  the  best  type  of  soldier 
for  general  purposes  now  to  be  found  in  the  world. 
The  ideal  cavalryman  of  the  present  day  is  a man 
who  can  fight  on  foot  as  effectively  as  the  best 
infantryman,  and  who  is  in  addition  unsurpassed 
in  the  care  and  management  of  his  horse  and  in 
his  ability  to  fight  on  horseback. 

A general  staff  should  be  created.  As  for  the 
present  staff  and  supply  departments,  they  should 
be  filled  by  details  from  the  line,  the  men  so  detailed 
returning  after  a while  to  their  line  duties.  It  is 
very  undesirable  to  have  the  senior  grades  of  the 
army  composed  of  men  who  have  come  to  fill  the 
positions  by  the  mere  fact  of  seniority.  A system 
should  be  adopted  by  which  there  shall  be  an 
elimination  grade  by  grade  of  those  who  seem 
116 


Army — Militia 

unfit  to  render  the  best  service  in  the  next  grade. 
Justice  to  the  veterans  of  the  Civil  War  who  are 
still  in  the  army  would  seem  to  require  that  in  the 
matter  of  retirements  they  be  given  by  law  the 
same  privileges  accorded  to  their  comrades  in  the 
navy. 

The  process  of  elimination  of  the  least  fit  should 
be  conducted  in  a manner  that  would  render  it 
practically  impossible  to  apply  political  or  social 
pressure  on  behalf  of  any  candidate,  so  that  each 
man  may  be  judged  purely  on  his  own  merits. 
Pressure  for  the  promotion  of  civil  officials  for 
political  reasons  is  bad  enough,  but  it  is  tenfold 
worse  where  applied  on  behalf  of  officers  of  the 
army  or  navy.  Every  promotion  and  every  detail 
under  the  War  Department  must  be  made  solely 
with  regard  to  the  good  of  the  service  and  to  the 
capacity  and  merit  of  the  man  himself.  No  press- 
ure, political,  social,  or  personal,  of  any  kind, 
will  be  permitted  to  exercise  the  least  effect  in  any 
question  of  promotion  or  detail;  and  if  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  such  pressure  is  exercised  at 
the  instigation  of  the  officer  concerned,  it  will  be 
held  to  militate  against  him.  In  our  army  we 
cannot  afford  to  have  rewards  or  duties  distributed 
save  on  the  simple  ground  that  those  who  by  their 
117 


Army — Militia 

own  merits  are  entitled  to  the  rewards  get  them, 
and  that  those  who  are  peculiarly  fit  to  do  the 
duties  are  chosen  to  perform  them. 

Every  effort  should  be  made  to  bring  the  army  to 
a constantly  increasing  state  of  efficiency.  When 
on  actual  service  no  work  save  that  directly  in  the 
line  of  such  service  should  be  required.  The  paper 
work  in  the  army,  as  in  the  navy,  should  be  greatly 
reduced.  What  is  needed  is  proved  power  of  com- 
mand and  capacity  to  work  well  in  the  field.  Con- 
stant care  is  necessary  to  prevent  dry-rot  in  the 
transportation  and  commissary  departments. 

Our  army  is  so  small  and  so  much  scattered  that 
it  is  very  difficult  to  give  the  higher  officers  (as  well 
as  the  lower  officers  and  the  enlisted  men)  a chance 
to  practise  manoeuvres  in  mass  and  on  a compara- 
tively large  scale.  In  time  of  need  no  amount  of 
individual  excellence  would  avail  against  the 
paralysis  which  would  follow  inability  to  work  as  a 
coherent  whole,  under  skilful  and  daring  leader- 
ship. The  Congress  should  provide  means  whereby 
it  will  be  possible  to  have  field  exercises  by  at  least 
a division  of  regulars,  and  if  possible  also  a division 
of  national  guardsmen,  once  a year.  These  exer- 
cises might  take  the  form  of  field  manoeuvres;  or, 
if  on  the  Gulf  Coast  or  the  Pacific  or  Atlantic 


118 


Army — Militia 

Seaboard,  or  in  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes,  the 
army  corps  when  assembled  could  be  marched  from 
some  inland  point  to  some  point  on  the  water,  there 
embarked,  disembarked  after  a couple  of  days’ 
journey  at  some  other  point,  and  again  marched 
inland.  Only  by  actual  handling  and  providing 
for  men  in  masses  while  they  are  marching,  camp- 
ing, embarking,  and  disembarking,  will  it  be  pos- 
sible to  train  the  higher  officers  to  perform  their 
duties  well  and  smoothly. 

A great  debt  is  owing  from  the  public  to  the  men 
of  the  army  and  navy.  They  should  be  so  treated 
as  to  enable  them  to  reach  the  highest  point  of 
efficiency,  so  that  they  may  be  able  to  respond  in- 
stantly to  any  demand  made  upon  them  to  sustain 
the  interests  of  the  Nation  and  the  honor  of  the 
flag.  The  individual  American  enlisted  man  is 
probably  on  the  whole  a more  formidable  fighting 
man  than  the  regular  of  any  other  army.  Every 
consideration  should  be  shown  him,  and  in  return 
the  highest  standard  of  usefulness  should  be  ex- 
acted from  him.  It  is  well  worth  while  for  the 
Congress  to  consider  whether  the  pay  of  enlisted 
men  upon  second  and  subsequent  enlistments  should 
not  be  increased  to  correspond  with  the  increased 
value  of  the  veteran  soldier. 


119 


A rmy — Militia 

Much  good  has  already  come  from  the  act  reor- 
ganizing the  army,  passed  early  in  the  present 
year.  The  three  prime  reforms,  all  of  them  of  lit- 
erally inestimable  value,  are,  first,  the  substitution 
of  four-year  details  from  the  line  for  permanent 
appointments  in  the  so-called  staff  divisions ; sec- 
ond, the  establishment  of  a corps  of  artillery  with 
a chief  at  the  head;  third,  the  establishment  of  a 
maximum  and  minimum  limit  for  the  army.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  improvement 
in  the  efficiency  of  our  army  which  these  three 
reforms  are  making,  and  have  in  part  already 
effected. 

The  reorganization  provided  for  by  the  act  has 
been  substantially  accomplished.  The  improved 
conditions  in  the  Philippines  have  enabled  the  War 
Department  materially  to  reduce  the  military 
charge  upon  our  revenue  and  to  arrange  the  num- 
ber of  soldiers  so  as  to  bring  this  number  much 
nearer  to  the  minimum  than  to  the  maximum  limit 
established  by  law.  There  is,  however,  need  of 
supplementary  legislation.  Thorough  military 
education  must  be  provided,  and  in  addition  to  the 
regulars  the  advantages  of  this  education  should 
be  given  to  the  officers  of  the  National  Guard  and 
others  in  civil  life  who  desire  intelligently  to  fit 
120 


Army — Militia 

themselves  for  possible  military  duty.  The  officers 
should  be  given  the  chance  to  perfect  themselves  by 
study  in  the  higher  branches  of  this  art.  At  West 
Point  the  education  should  be  of  the  kind  most  apt 
to  turn  out  men  who  are  good  in  actual  field  ser- 
vice; too  much  stress  should  not  be  laid  on  mathe- 
matics, nor  should  proficiency  therein  be  held  to 
establish  the  right  of  entry  to  a corps  d’elite.  The 
typical  American  officer  of  the  best  kind  need  not 
be  a good  mathematician;  but  he  must  be  able  to 
master  himself,  to  control  others,  and  to  show  bold- 
ness and  fertility  of  resource  in  every  emergency. 
— Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress. 
[p.  585.] 

Militia 

Action  should  be  taken  in  reference  to  the  militia 
and  to  the  raising  of  volunteer  forces.  Our  militia 
law  is  obsolete  and  worthless.  The  organization  and 
armament  of  the  National  Guard  of  the  several 
States,  which  are  treated  as  militia  in  the  appro- 
priations by  the  Congress,  should  be  made  identical 
with  those  provided  for  the  regular  forces.  The 
obligations  and  duties  of  the  Guard  in  time  of  war 
should  be  carefully  defined,  and  a system  estab- 
lished by  law  under  which  the  method  of  procedure 
121 


Army — Militia 

of  raising  volunteer  forces  should  be  prescribed  in 
advance.  It  is  utterly  impossible  in  the  excitement 
and  haste  of  impending  war  to  do  this  satisfac- 
torily if  the  arrangements  have  not  been  made  long 
beforehand.  Provision  should  be  made  for  utilizing 
in  the  first  volunteer  organizations  called  out  the 
training  of  those  citizens  who  have  already  had 
experience  under  arms,  and  especially  for  the  selec- 
tion in  advance  of  the  officers  of  any  force  which 
may  be  raised;  for  careful  selection  of  the  kind 
necessary  is  impossible  after  the  outbreak  of  war. 

That  the  army  is  not  at  all  a mere  instrument  of 
destruction  has  been  shown  during  the  last  three 
years.  In  the  Philippines,  Cuba,  and  Porto  Rico 
it  has  proved  itself  a great  constructive  force,  a 
most  potent  implement  for  the  upbuilding  of  a 
peaceful  civilization. — Message  first  session  Fifty- 
seventh  Congress,  [p.  589.] 


CIVIL  WAR  VETERANS 


NO  other  citizens  deserve  so  well  of  the  Repub- 
lic as  the  veterans,  the  survivors  of  those  who 
saved  the  Union.  They  did  the  one  deed  which  if 
left  undone  would  have  meant  that  all  else  in  our 
history  went  for  nothing.  But  for  their  steadfast 
prowess  in  the  greatest  crisis  of  our  history,  all  our 
annals  would  be  meaningless,  and  our  great  experi- 
ment in  popular  freedom  and  self-government  a 
gloomy  failure.  Moreover,  they  not  only  left  us  a 
united  nation,  but  they  left  us  also  as  a heritage 
the  memory  of  the  mighty  deeds  by  which  the 
Nation  was  kept  united.  We  are  now  indeed  one 
nation,  one  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name ; we  are  united 
in  our  devotion  to  the  flag  which  is  the  symbol  of 
national  greatness  and  unity ; and  the  very  com- 
pleteness of  our  union  enables  us  all,  in  every  part 
of  the  country,  to  glory  in  the  valor  shown  alike 
by  the  sons  of  the  North  and  the  sons  of  the  South 
in  the  times  that  tried  men’s  souls. 

The  men  who  in  the  last  three  years  have  done 

123 


Civil  War  Veterans 


so  well  in  the  East  and  the  West  Indies  and  on  the 
mainland  of  Asia  have  shown  that  this  remem- 
brance is  not  lost.  In  any  serious  crisis  the  United 
States  must  rely  for  the  great  mass  of  its  fighting 
men  upon  the  volunteer  soldiery  who  do  not  make 
a permanent  profession  of  the  military  career ; and 
whenever  such  a crisis  arises  the  deathless  memories 
of  the  Civil  War  will  give  to  Americans  the  lift  of 
lofty  purpose  which  comes  to  those  whose  fathers 
have  stood  valiantly  in  the  fore-front  of  the  battle. 
— Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress. 
[p.  590.] 


124 


CIVIL  SERVICE 


Merit  System 


HE  merit  system  of  making  appointments 


A is  in  its  essence  as  democratic  and  American  as 
the  common-school  system  itself.  It  simply  means 
that  in  clerical  and  other  positions  where  the  duties 
are  entirely  non-political,  all  applicants  should  have 
a fair  field  and  no  favor,  each  standing  on  his  merits 
as  he  is  able  to  show  them  by  practical  test.  Writ- 
ten competitive  examinations  offer  the  only  avail- 
able means  in  many  cases  for  applying  this  system. 
In  other  cases,  as  where  laborers  are  employed,  a 
system  of  registration  undoubtedly  can  be  widely 
extended.  There  are,  of  course,  places  where  the 
written  competitive  examination  cannot  be  applied, 
and  others  where  it  offers  by  no  means  an  ideal 
solution,  but  where  under  existing  political  condi- 
tions it  is,  though  an  imperfect  means,  yet  the  best 
present  means  of  getting  satisfactory  results. 

Wherever  the  conditions  have  permitted  the 


125 


Civil  Service 


application  of  the  merit  system  in  its  fullest  and 
widest  sense,  the  gain  to  the  government  has  been 
immense.  The  navy  yards  and  postal  service  illus- 
trate, probably  better  than  any  other  branches  of 
the  government,  the  great  gain  in  economy,  effi- 
ciency, and  honesty  due  to  the  enforcement  of  this 
principle. 

I recommend  the  passage  of  a law  which  will 
extend  the  classified  service  to  the  District  of 
Columbia,  or  will  at  least  enable  the  President  thus 
to  extend  it.  In  my  judgment  all  laws  providing 
for  the  temporary  employment  of  clerks  should 
hereafter  contain  a provision  that  they  be  selected 
under  the  Civil  Service  Law — Message  first  session 
Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  591.] 


126 


FOREIGN  POLICY 

Friendliness  and  Self-Respect 

THE  stronger,  the  more  self-confident  the  na- 
tion is,  the  more  carefully  it  should  guard  its 
speech  as  well  as  its  action,  and  should  make  it  a 
point,  in  the  interest  of  its  own  self-respect,  to  see 
that  it  does  not  say  what  it  cannot  make  good,  that 
it  avoids  giving  needless  offence,  that  it  shows 
genuinely  and  sincerely  its  desire  for  friendship 
with  the  rest  of  mankind,  but  that  it  keeps  itself 
in  shape  to  make  its  weight  felt  should  the  need 
arise. 

That  is  in  substance  my  theory  of  what  our 
foreign  policy  should  be.  Let  us  not  boast,  not 
insult  anyone,  but  make  up  our  minds  coolly  what 
is  necessary  to  say,  say  it,  and  then  stand  to  it, 
whatever  the  consequences  may  be. — Waukesha, 
Wis.,  Apl.  3,  1903.  [p.272.] 

127 


Foreign  Policy, 


Assume  That  Other  Powers  Are  Sincere 

Let  the  friendly  expressions  of  foreign  powers 
be  accepted  as  tokens  of  their  sincere  good-will,  and 
reflecting  their  real  sentiments. — Waukesha,  Wis., 
Apl.  3,  1903.  [p.  273.] 


128 


MONROE  DOCTRINE 


May  Become  International  Law 

THE  Monroe  Doctrine  is  not  international  law, 
and  though  I think  one  day  it  may  become 
such,  this  is  not  necessary  as  long  as  it  remains  a 
cardinal  feature  of  our  foreign  policy  and  as  long 
as  we  possess  both  the  will  and  the  strength  to  make 
it  effective.  This  last  point,  my  fellow-citizens,  is 
all  important,  and  is  one  which  as  a people  we  can 
never  afford  to  forget.  I believe  in  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  with  all  my  heart  and  soul;  I am  con- 
vinced that  the  immense  majority  of  our  fellow- 
countrymen  so  believe  in  it;  but  I would  infinitely 
prefer  to  see  us  abandon  it  than  to  see  us  put  it 
forward  and  bluster  about  it,  and  yet  fail  to  build 
up  the  efficient  fighting  strength  which  in  the  last 
resort  can  alone  make  it  respected  by  any  strong 
foreign  power  whose  interest  it  may  ever  happen 
to  be  to  violate  it. — Chicago,  III.,  Apl.  2,  1903. 
[p.  265.] 


129 


Monroe  Doctrine 


A Guaranty  of  Commercial  Independence  of  All 
the  Americas 

This  same  peace  conference  acquiesced  in  our 
statement  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  as  compatible 
with  the  purposes  and  aims  of  the  conference. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine  should  be  the  cardinal 
feature  of  the  foreign  policy  ofall  the  nations,  of 
the  two  Americas,  as  it  is  of  theJUnited_ States. 
Justr^eventy -eight'  years  have  passed  since  Presi- 
dent Monroe  in  his  Annual  Message  announced 
that  “The  American  continents  are  henceforth  not 
to  be  considered  as  subjects  for  future  coloniza- 
tion by  any  European  power.”  In  other  words, 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  a declaration  that  there 
must  be  no  territorial  aggrandizement  by  any  non- 
American  power  at  the  expense  of  any  American 
power  on  American  soil. 

This  doctrine  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  com- 
mercial relations  of  any  American  power,  save  that 
it  in  truth  allows  each  of  them  to  form  such  as  it 
desires.  In  other  words,  it  is  really  a guaranty  of 
the  commercial  independence  of  the  Americas.  We 
do  not  ask  under  this  doctrine  for  any  exclusive 
commericial  dealings  with  any  other  American 
130 


Monroe  Doctrine 


state.  We  do  not  guarantee  any  state  against 
punishment  if  it  misconducts  itself,  provided  that 
punishment  does  not  take  the  form  of  the  acquisi- 
tion of  territory  by  any  non- American  power. 

Our  attitude  in  Cuba  is  a sufficient  guaranty  of 
our  own  good  faith.  We  have  not  the  slightest 
desire  to  secure  any  territory  at  the  expense  of  any 
of  our  neighbors.  We  wish  to  work  with  them  hand 
in  hand,  so  that  all  of  us  may  be  uplifted  together, 
and  we  rejoice  over  the  good  fortune  of  any  of 
them,  we  gladly  hail  their  material  prosperity  and 
political  stability. — Message  first  session  Fifty- 
seventh  Congress,  [p.  576.] 


131 


WAR 


The  Advance  of  Civilization  Should  Mark  the 
Decline  of  War  Spirit 


S civilization  grows  warfare  becomes  less  and 


A less  the  normal  condition  of  foreign  relations. 
The  last  century  has  seen  a marked  diminution  of 
wars  between  civilized  powers ; wars  with  uncivilized 
powers  are  largely  mere  matters  of  international 
police  duty,  essential  for  the  welfare  of  the  world. 
Wherever  possible,  arbitration  or  some  similar 
method  should  be  employed  in  lieu  of  war  to  settle 
difficulties  between  civilized  nations,  although  as 
yet  the  world  has  not  progressed  sufficiently  to 
render  it  possible,  or  necessarily  desirable,  to  invoke 
arbitration  in  every  case.  The  formation  of  the 
international  tribunal  which  sits  at  The  Hague  is 
an  event  of  good  omen  from  which  great  conse- 
quences for  the  welfare  of  all  mankind  may  flow. 
It  is  far  better,  where  possible,  to  invoke  such  a 
permanent  tribunal,  than  to  create  special  arbi- 
trators for  a given  purpose. — Message  second  ses- 
sion Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  622.] 


132 


CONSULAR  SERVICE 


Merit  System  Desirable 

IT  is  much  to  be  desired  that  our  consular  system 
be  established  by  law  on  a basis  providing  for 
appointment  and  pi'omotion  only  in  consequence  of 
proved  fitness.- — Message  second  Session  Fifty- 
seventh  Congress,  [p.  644.] 

Men  of  Character  Needed 

The  guardianship  and  fostering  of  our  rapidly 
expanding  foreign  commerce,  the  protection  of 
American  citizens  resorting  to  foreign  countries  in 
lawful  pursuit  of  their  affairs,  and  the  maintenance 
of  the  dignity  of  the  Nation  abroad,  combine  to 
make  it  essential  that  our  consuls  should  be  men  of 
character,  knowledge,  and  enterprise.  It  is  true 
that  the  service  is  now,  in  the  main,  efficient,  but  a 
standard  of  excellence  cannot  be  permanently  main- 
tained until  the  principles  set  forth  in  the  bills 
heretofore  submitted  to  the  Congress  on  this  sub- 
ject are  enacted  into  law. — Message  first  session 
Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  594.] 

133 


AGRICULTURE 


IN  no  department  of  governmental  work  in  re- 
cent  years  has  there  been  greater  success  than 
in  that  of  giving  scientific  aid  to  the  farming  popu- 
lation, thereby  showing  them  how  most  efficiently 
to  help  themselves.  There  is  no  need  of  insisting 
upon  its  importance,  for  the  welfare  of  the  farmer 
is  fundamentally  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  the 
Republic  as  a whole.  In  addition  to  such  work  as 
quarantine  against  animal  and  vegetable  plagues, 
and  warring  against  them  when  here  introduced, 
much  efficient  help  has  been  rendered  to  the  farmer 
by  the  introduction  of  new  plants  specially  fitted 
for  cultivation  under  the  peculiar  conditions  exist- 
ing in  different  portions  of  the  country.  New 
cereals  have  been  established  in  the  semi-arid  West. 
For  instance,  the  practicability  of  producing  the 
best  types  of  macaroni  wheats  in  regions  of  an  an- 
nual rainfall  of  only  ten  inches  or  thereabouts  has 
been  conclusively  demonstrated.  Through  the  in- 
troduction of  new  rices  in  Louisiana  and  Texas  the 
134 


Agriculture 

production  of  rice  in  this  country  has  been  made 
to  about  equal  the  home  demand.  In  the  South- 
west the  possibility  of  regrassing  overstocked 
range  lands  has  been  demonstrated;  in  the  North 
many  new  forage  crops  have  been  introduced,  while 
in  the  East  it  has  been  shown  that  some  of  our 
choicest  fruits  can  be  stored  and  shipped  in  such  a 
way  as  to  find  a profitable  market  abroad. — Mes- 
sage second  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
641.] 


135 


IRRIGATION 


Its  Vast  Importance  to  the  Country  at  Large 

ONE  word  as  to  the  greatest  question  with 
which  our  people  as  a whole  have  to  deal  in 
the  matter  of  internal  development  to-day — the 
question  of  irrigation.  Not  of  recent  years  has  any 
more  important  law  been  put  upon  the  statute- 
books  of  the  Federal  Government  than  the  law  a 
year  ago  providing  for  the  first  time  that  the  Na- 
tional Government  should  interest  itself  in 
aiding  and  building  up  a system  of  irrigated  agri- 
culture in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  plains  States. 
— Salt  Lake  City,  May  29, 1903.  [p.  442.] 

As  Beneficial  to  Arid  States  as  River  and  Harbor 
Improvements  to  Humid  States 

One  of  the  greatest  and  most  beneficent  measures 
passed  by  the  last  Congress,  or  indeed  by  any 
Congress  in  recent  years,  is  the  Irrigation  Act, 

136 


Irrigation 

which  will  do  for  the  States  of  the  Great  Plains  and 
the  Rocky  Mountain  region  at  least  as  much  as 
ever  has  been  done  for  the  States  of  the  humid 
region  by  river  and  harbor  improvements.  Few 
measures  that  have  been  put  upon  the  statute-books 
of  the  Nation  have  done  more  for  the  people  than 
this  law  will,  I firmly  believe,  directly  and  indirectly 
accomplish  for  the  States  in  question. — Sioux  Falls, 
April  6,  1903.  [p.  303.] 

Progress  of  the  Work 

The  work  of  reclamation  of  the  arid  lands  of  the 
West  is  progressing  steadily  and  satisfactorily 
under  the  terms  of  the  law  setting  aside  the  pro- 
ceeds from  the  disposal  of  public  lands.  The  corps 
of  engineers  known  as  the  Reclamation  Service, 
which  is  conducting  the  surveys  and  examinations, 
has  been  thoroughly  organized,  especial  pains 
being  taken  to  secure  under  the  civil-service  rules 
a body  of  skilled,  experienced,  and  efficient  men. 
Surveys  and  examinations  are  progressing  through- 
out the  arid  States  and  Territories,  plans  for  re- 
claiming works  being  prepared  and  passed  upon 
by  boards  of  engineers  before  approval  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior.  In  Arizona  and  Nevada, 
13T 


Irrigation 

in  localities  where  such  work  is  pre-eminently 
needed,  construction  has  already  been  begun.  In 
other  parts  of  the  arid  West  various  projects  are 
well  advanced  toward  the  drawing  up  of  contracts, 
these  being  delayed  in  part  by  necessities  of  reach- 
ing agreements  or  understanding  as  regards  rights 
of  way  or  acquisition  of  real  estate.  Most  of  the 
works  contemplated  for  construction  are  of  national 
importance,  involving  interstate  questions  or  the 
securing  of  stable,  self-supporting  communities  in 
the  midst  of  vast  tracts  of  vacant  land.  The  Na- 
tion as  a whole  is  of  course  the  gainer  by  the  crea- 
tion of  these  homes,  adding  as  they  do  to  the  wealth 
and  stability  of  the  country,  and  furnishing  a home 
market  for  the  products  of  the  East  and  South. 
The  reclamation  law,  while  perhaps  not  ideal,  ap- 
pears at  present  to  answer  the  larger  needs  for 
which  it  is  designed.  Further  legislation  is  not 
recommended  until  the  necessities  of  change  are 
more  apparent. — Message  second  session  Fifty- 
eighth  Congress,  [p.  682.] 

The  Forests  and  Irrigation 

The  forests  are  natural  reservoirs.  By  restrain- 
ing the  streams  in  flood  and  replenishing  them  in 
drought  they  make  possible  the  use  of  waters  other- 
138 


Irrigation 

wise  wasted.  They  prevent  the  soil  from  washing, 
and  so  protect  the  storage  reservoirs  from  filling 
up  with  silt.  Forest  conservation  is  therefore  an 
essential  condition  of  water  conservation. 

The  forests  alone  cannot,  however,  fully  regu- 
late and  conserve  the  waters  of  the  arid  region. 
Great  storage  works  are  necessary  to  equalize  the 
flow  of  streams  and  to  save  the  flood  waters.  Their 
construction  has  been  conclusively  shown  to  be  an 
undertaking  too  vast  for  private  effort.  Nor  can  it 
be  best  accomplished  by  the  individual  States  act- 
ing alone.  Far-reaching  interstate  problems  are 
involved;  and  the  resources  of  single  States  would 
often  be  inadequate.  It  is  properly  a national 
function,  at  least  in  some  of  its  features.  It  is  as 
right  for  the  National  Government  to  make  the 
streams  and  rivers  of  the  arid  region  useful  by 
engineering  works  for  water  storage  as  to  make 
useful  the  rivers  and  harbors  of  the  humid  region 
by  engineering  works  of  another  kind.  The  stor- 
ing of  the  floods  in  reservoirs  at  the  head-waters  of 
our  rivers  is  but  an  enlargement  of  our  present 
policy  of  river  control,  under  which  levees  are  built 
on  the  lower  reaches  of  the  same  streams. 

The  Government  should  construct  and  maintain 
these  reservoirs  as  it  does  other  public  works. 
139 


Irrigation 

Where  their  purpose  is  to  regulate  the  flow  of 
streams,  the  water  should  be  turned  freely  into  the 
channels  in  the  dry  season  to  take  the  same  course 
under  the  same  laws  as  the  natural  flow. 

The  reclamation  of  the  unsettled  arid  public 
lands  presents  a different  problem.  Here  it  is  not 
enough  to  regulate  the  flow  of  streams.  The  object 
of  the  government  is  to  dispose  of  the  land  to 
settlers  who  will  build  homes  upon  it.  To  accom- 
plish this  object  water  must  be  brought  within 
their  reach. 

The  pioneer  settlers  on  the  arid  public  domain 
chose  their  homes  along  streams  from  which  they 
could  themselves  divert  the  water  to  reclaim  their 
holdings.  Such  opportunities  are  practically  gone. 
There  remain,  however,  vast  areas  of  public  land 
which  can  be  made  available  for  homestead  settle- 
ment, but  only  by  reservoirs  and  main-line  canals 
impracticable  for  private  enterprise.  These  irriga- 
tion works  should  be  built  by  the  National  Govern- 
ment. The  lands  reclaimed  by  them  should  be 
reserved  by  the  Government  for  actual  settlers,  and 
the  cost  of  construction  should  so  far  as  possible  be 
repaid  by  the  land  reclaimed.  The  distribution  of 
the  water,  the  division  of  the  streams  among  irri- 
gators, should  be  left  to  the  settlers  themselves  in 
140 


Irrigation 

conformity  with  State  laws  and  without  interfer- 
ence with  those  laws  or  with  vested  rights.  The 
policy  of  the  National  Government  should  be  to 
aid  irrigation  in  the  several  States  and  Territories 
in  such  manner  as  will  enable  the  people  in  the  local 
communities  to  help  themselves,  and  as  will  stimu- 
late needed  reforms  in  the  State  laws  and  regula- 
tions governing  irrigation. 

The  reclamation  and  settlement  of  the  arid  lands 
will  enrich  every  portion  of  our  country,  just  as 
the  settlement  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Valleys 
brought  prosperity  to  the  Atlantic  States.  The 
increased  demand  for  manufactured  articles  will 
stimulate  industrial  production,  while  wider  home 
markets  and  the  trade  of  Asia  will  consume  the 
larger  food  supplies  and  effectually  prevent  West- 
ern competition  with  Eastern  agriculture.  Indeed, 
the  products  of  irrigation  will  be  consumed  chiefly 
in  upbuilding  local  centres  of  mining  and  other 
industries,  which  would  otherwise  not  come  into 
existence  at  all.  Our  people  as  a whole  will  profit, 
for  successful  home-making  is  but  another  name 
for  the  upbuilding  of  the  Nation. 

The  necessary  foundation  has  already  been  laid 
for  the  inauguration  of  the  policy  just  described. 
It  would  be  unwise  to  begin  by  doing  too  much,  for 
141 


Irrigation 

a great  deal  will  doubtless  be  learned,  both  as  to 
what  can  and  what  cannot  be  safely  attempted,  by 
the  early  efforts,  which  must  of  necessity  be  partly 
experimental  in  character.  At  the  very  beginning 
the  Government  should  make  clear,  beyond  shadow 
of  doubt,  its  intention  to  pursue  this  policy  on  lines 
of  the  broadest  public  interest.  No  reservoir  or 
canal  should  ever  be  built  to  satisfy  selfish  personal 
or  local  interests;  but  only  in  accordance  with  the 
advice  of  trained  experts,  after  long  investigation 
has  shown  the  locality  where  all  the  conditions  com- 
bine to  make  the  work  most  needed  and  fraught 
with  the  greatest  usefulness  to  the  community  as  a 
whole.  There  should  be  no  extravagance,  and  the 
believers  in  the  need  of  irrigation  will  most  benefit 
their  cause  by  seeing  to  it  that  it  is  free  from  the 
least  taint  of  excessive  or  reckless  expenditure  of 
the  public  moneys. 

Whatever  the  Nation  does  for  the  extension  of 
irrigation  should  harmonize  with  and  tend  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  those  now  living  on  irrigated 
land.  We  are  not  at  the  starting-point  of  this  de- 
velopment. Over  two  hundred  millions  of  private 
capital  has  already  been  expended  in  the  construc- 
tion of  irrigation  works,  and  many  million  acres  of 
arid  land  reclaimed.  A high  degree  of  enterprise 
142 


Irrigation 

and  ability  has  been  shown  in  the  work  itself ; but 
as  much  cannot  be  said  in  reference  to  the  laws 
relating  thereto.  The  security  and  value  of  the 
homes  created  depend  largely  on  the  stability  of 
titles  to  water;  but  the  majority  of  these  rest  on 
the  uncertain  foundation  of  court  decisions  ren- 
dered in  ordinary  suits  at  law.  With  a few  credit- 
able exceptions,  the  arid  States  have  failed  to 
provide  for  the  certain  and  just  division  of  streams 
in  times  of  scarcity.  Lax  and  uncertain  laws  have 
made  it  possible  to  establish  rights  to  water  in  ex- 
cess of  actual  uses  or  necessities,  and  many  streams 
have  already  passed  into  private  ownership,  or  a 
control  equivalent  to  ownership. 

Whoever  controls  a stream  practically  controls 
the  land  it  renders  productive,  and  the  doctrine  of 
private  ownership  of  water  apart  from  land  cannot 
prevail  without  causing  enduring  wrong.  The 
recognition  of  such  ownership,  which  has  been  per- 
mitted to  grow  up  in  the  arid  regions,  should  give 
way  to  a more  enlightened  and  larger  recognition 
of  the  rights  of  the  public  in  the  control  and  dis- 
posal of  the  public  water  supplies.  Laws  founded 
upon  conditions  obtaining  in  humid  regions,  where 
water  is  too  abundant  to  justify  hoarding  it,  have 
no  proper  application  in  a dry  country. 

143 


Irrigation 

In  the  arid  States  the  only  right  to  water  which 
should  be  recognized  is  that  of  use.  In  irrigation 
this  right  should  attach  to  the  land  reclaimed  and 
be  inseparable  therefrom.  Granting  perpetual 
water  rights  to  others  than  users,  without  com- 
pensation to  the  public,  is  open  to  all  the  objections 
which  apply  to  giving  away  perpetual  franchises 
to  the  public  utilities  of  cities.  A few  of  the  West- 
ern States  have  already  recognized  this,  and  have 
incorporated  in  their  constitutions  the  doctrine  of 
perpetual  State  ownership  of  water. 

The  benefits  which  have  followed  the  unaided 
development  of  the  past  justify  the  nation’s  aid 
and  co-operation  in  the  more  difficult  and  important 
work  yet  to  be  accomplished.  Laws  so  vitally 
affecting  homes  as  those  which  control  the  water 
supply  will  only  be  effective  when  they  have  the 
sanction  of  the  irrigators ; reforms  can  only  be  final 
and  satisfactory  when  they  come  through  the  en- 
lightenment of  the  people  most  concerned.  The 
larger  development  which  national  aid  insures 
should,  however,  awaken  in  every  arid  State  the 
determination  to  make  its  irrigation  system  equal 
in  justice  and  effectiveness  that  of  any  country  in 
the  civilized  world.  Nothing  could  be  more  unwise 
than  for  isolated  communities  to  continue  to  learn 


144 


Irrigation 

everything  experimentally,  instead  of  profiting  by 
what  is  already  known  elsewhere.  We  are  dealing 
with  a new  and  momentous  question,  in  the  preg- 
nant years  while  institutions  are  forming,  and  what 
we  do  will  affect  not  only  the  present  but  future 
generations. 

Our  aim  should  be  not  simply  to  reclaim  the 
largest  area  of  land  and  provide  homes  for  the 
largest  number  of  people,  but  to  create  for  this 
new  industry  the  best  possible  social  and  industrial 
conditions ; and  this  requires  that  we  not  only 
understand  the  existing  situation,  but  avail  our- 
. selves  of  the  best  experience  of  the  time  in  the  solu- 
tion of  its  problems.  A careful  study  should  be 
made,  both  by  the  Nation  and  the  States,  of  the 
irrigation  laws  and  conditions,  here  and  abroad. 
Ultimately  it  will  probably  be  necessary  for  the 
Nation  to  co-operate  with  the  several  arid  States 
in  proportion  as  these  States  by  their  legislation 
and  administration  show  themselves  fit  to  receive  it. 
— Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress. 
[p.  563.] 


145 


FORESTRY 


Forest  Preservation  and  Homes 

THE  first  great  object  of  the  forest  reserves  is, 
of  course,  the  first  great  object  of  the  whole 
land  policy  of  the  United  States — the  creation  of 
homes,  the  favoring  of  the  home-maker.  That  is 
why  we  wish  to  provide  for  the  home-makers  of 
the  present  and  the  future  the  steady  and  continu- 
ous supply  of  timber,  grass,  and  above  all,  of 
water.  That  is  the  object  of  the  forest  reserves, 
and  that  is  why  I bespeak  your  cordial  co-operation 
in  their  preservation. — Salt  Lake  City,  May  29, 
1903.  [p.  441.] 

Forests  and  Head-waters 

The  study  of  the  opportunities  of  reclamation  of 
the  vast  extent  of  arid  land  shows  that  whether  this 
reclamation  is  done  by  individuals,  corporations, 
or  the  State,  the  sources  of  water  supply  must  be 
effectively  protected  and  the  reservoirs  guarded  by 
146 


Forestry 

the  preservation  of  the  forests  at  the  head-waters 
of  the  streams.  The  engineers  making  the  pre- 
liminary examinations  continually  emphasize  this 
need  and  urge  that  the  remaining  public  lands  at 
the  head-waters  of  the  important  streams  of  the 
West  be  reserved  to  insure  permanency  of  water 
supply  for  irrigation.  Much  progress  in  forestry 
has  been  made  during  the  past  year.  The  necessity 
for  perpetuating  our  forest  resources,  whether  in 
public  or  private  hands,  is  recognized  now  as  never 
before.  The  demand  for  forest  reserves  has  become 
insistent  in  the  West,  because  the  West  must  use 
the  water,  wood,  and  summer  range  which  only  such 
reserves  can  supply.  Progressive  lumbermen  are 
striving,  through  forestry,  to  give  their  business 
permanence.  Other  great  business  interests  are 
awakening  to  the  need  of  forest  preservation  as  a 
business  matter.  The  Government’s  forest  work 
should  receive  from  the  Congress  hearty  support, 
and  especially  support  adequate  for  the  protection 
of  the  forest  reserves  against  fire.  The  forest- 
reserve  policy  of  the  Government  has  passed  be- 
yond the  experimental  stage  and  has  reached  a 
condition  where  scientific  methods  are  essential  to 
its  successful  prosecution.  The  administration 
features  of  forest  reserves  are  at  present  unsatis- 
147 


Forestry 

factory,  being  divided  between  three  Bureaus  of 
two  Departments.  It  is  therefore  recommended 
that  all  matters  pertaining  to  forest  reserves,  ex- 
cept those  involving  or  pertaining  to  land  titles,  be 
consolidated  in  the  Bureau  of  Forestry  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture. — Message  second  ses- 
sion Fifty-eight  Congress,  [p.  683.] 

Forest  Preservation  Does  Not  Mean  Destruction  of 
Timber  Industry 

Public  opinion  throughout  the  United  States 
has  moved  steadily  toward  a just  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  forests,  whether  planted  or  of  natural 
growth.  The  great  part  played  by  them  in  the 
creation  and  maintenance  of  the  national  wealth  is 
now  more  fully  realized  than  ever  before. 

Wise  forest  protection  does  not  mean  the  with- 
drawal of  forest  resources,  whether  of  wood,  water, 
or  grass,  from  contributing  their  full  share  to  the 
welfare  of  the  people,  but,  on  the  contrary,  gives 
the  assurance  of  larger  and  more  certain  supplies. 
The  fundamental  idea  of  forestry  is  the  perpetua- 
tion of  forests  by  use.  Forest  protection  is  not  an 
end  of  itself ; it  is  a means  to  increase  and  sustain 
the  resources  of  our  country  and  the  industries 
148 


Forestry 

which  depend  upon  them.  The  preservation  of  our 
forests  is  an  imperative  business  necessity.  We 
have  come  to  see  clearly  that  whatever  destroys 
the  forest,  except  to  make  way  for  agriculture, 
threatens  our  well-being. 

The  practical  usefulness  of  the  national  forest 
reserves  to  the  mining,  grazing,  irrigation,  and 
other  interests  of  the  regions  in  which  the  reserves 
lie  has  led  to  a wide-spread  demand  by  the  people  of 
the  West  for  their  protection  and  extension.  The 
forest  reserves  will  inevitably  be  of  still  greater  use 
in  the  future  than  in  the  past.  Additions  should  be 
made  to  them  whenever  practicable,  and  their  use- 
fulness should  be  increased  by  a thoroughly  busi- 
ness-like management. 

At  present  the  protection  of  the  forest  reserves 
rests  with  the  General  Land  Office,  the  mapping 
and  description  of  their  timber  with  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey,  and  the  preparation  of 
plans  for  their  conservative  use  with  the  Bureau  of 
Forestry,  which  is  also  charged  with  the  general 
advancement  of  practical  forestry  in  the  United 
States.  These  various  functions  should  be  united 
in  the  Bureau  of  Forestry,  to  which  they  properly 
belong.  The  present  diffusion  of  responsibility  is 
bad  from  every  stand-point.  It  prevents  that  effec- 

149 


Forestry 

tive  co-operation  between  the  government  and  the 
men  who  utilize  the  resources  of  the  reserves,  with- 
out which  the  interests  of  both  must  suffer.  The 
scientific  bureaus  generally  should  be  put  under 
the  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  President 
should  have  by  law  the  power  of  transferring  lands 
for  use  as  forest  reserves  to  the  Department  of 
Agriculture.  He  already  has  such  power  in  the 
case  of  lands  needed  by  the  Departments  of  War 
and  the  Navy. 

The  wise  administration  of  the  forest  reserves 
will  be  not  less  helpful  to  the  interests  which 
depend  on  water,  than  to  those  which  depend 
on  wood  and  grass.  The  water  supply  itself  de- 
pends upon  the  forest.  In  the  arid  region  it  is 
water,  not  land,  which  measures  production.  The 
western  half  of  the  United  States  would  sustain  a 
population  greater  than  that  of  our  whole  country 
to-day  if  the  waters  that  now  run  to  waste  were 
saved  and  used  for  irrigation.  The  forest  and 
water  problems  are  perhaps  the  most  vital  internal 
questions  of  the  United  States. 

Certain  of  the  forest  reserves  should  also  be  made 
preserves  for  the  wild  forest  creatures.  All  of  the 
reserves  should  be  better  protected  from  fires. 
Many  of  them  need  special  protection  because  of 
150 


Forestry 


the  great  injury  done  by  live  stock,  above  all  Dy 
sheep.  The  increase  in  deer,  elk,  and  other  animals 
in  the  Yellowstone  Park  shows  what  may  be  ex- 
pected when  other  mountain  forests  are  properly 
protected  by  law  and  properly  guarded.  Some  of 
these  areas  have  been  so  denuded  of  surface  vege- 
tation by  overgrazing  that  the  ground-breeding 
birds,  including  grouse  and  quail,  and  many  mam- 
mals, including  deer,  have  been  exterminated  or 
driven  away.  At  the  same  time  the  water-storing 
capacity  of  the  surface  has  been  decreased  or  de- 
stroyed, thus  promoting  floods  in  times  of  rain  and 
diminishing  the  flow  of  streams  between  rains. 

In  cases  where  natural  conditions  have  been  re- 
stored for  a few  years,  vegetation  has  again  car- 
peted the  ground,  birds  and  deer  are  coming  back, 
and  hundreds  of  persons,  especially  from  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood,  come  each  summer  to  enjoy 
the  privilege  of  camping.  Some  at  least  of  the 
forest  reserves  should  afford  perpetual  protection 
to  the  native  fauna  and  flora,  safe  havens  of  refuge 
to  our  rapidly  diminishing  wild  animals  of  the 
larger  kinds,  and  free  camping-grounds  for  the 
ever-increasing  numbers  of  men  and  women  who 
have  learned  to  find  rest,  health,  and  recreation  in 
the  splendid  forests  and  flower-clad  meadows  of  our 
151 


Forestry 

mountains.  The  forest  reserves  should  be  set  apart 
forever  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  our  people  as  a 
whole  and  not  sacrificed  to  the  short-sighted  greed 
of  a few — Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Con- 
gress. [p.  557.] 


152 


C URRENCY— MONEY 


Greater  Elasticity  Needed 

IT  is  well-nigh  universally  admitted,  certainly  in 
any  business  community  such  as  this,  that  our 
currency  system  is  wanting  in  elasticity;  that  is, 
the  volume  does  not  respond  to  the  varying  needs 
of  the  country  as  a whole,  nor  of  the  varying  needs 
of  the  different  localities  as  well  as  of  different 
times.  Our  people  scarcely  need  to  be  reminded 
that  grain-raising  communities  require  a larger 
volume  of  currency  at  harvest  time  than  during  the 
summer  months ; and  the  same  principle  in  greater 
or  less  extent  applies  to  every  community.  Our 
currency  laws  need  such  modification  as  will  insure 
definitely  the  parity  of  every  dollar  coined  or  issued 
by  the  government,  and  such  expansion  or  con- 
traction of  the  currency  as  will  promptly  and  auto- 
matically respond  to  the  varying  needs  of  com- 
merce. Permanent  increase  would  be  dangerous, 
permanent  contraction  ruinous,  but  the  needed  elas- 
153 


Currency— M oney 

ticity  must  be  brought  about  by  provisions  which 
will  permit  both  contraction  and  expansion  as  the 
varying  needs  of  the  several  communities  and  busi- 
ness interests  at  different  times  and  in  different 
localities  require. — Quincy,  III.,  Apl.  29,  1903. 
[p.  335.] 


Present  Prosperity  Must  Not  Be  Imperilled 

It  is  most  important  that  we  should  maintain 
the  high  level  of  our  present  prosperity.  We  have 
now  reached  the  point  in  the  development  of  our 
interests  where  we  are  not  only  able  to  supply  our 
own  markets  but  to  produce  a constantly  growing 
surplus  for  which  we  must  find  markets  abroad. — 
Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
552.] 

Honest  Financial  System  First  Essential 

A financial  system  of  assured  honesty  is  the 
first  essential.  Another  essential  for  any  commu- 
nity is  perseverance  in  the  economic  policy  which 
for  a course  of  years  is  found  best  fitted  for  its 
peculiar  needs. — Logans  port,  Ind.,  Sept.  23, 
1903.  [p.  190.] 


154 


Currency — M oney 


Sound  Money  Part  of  an  Honest  System 

The  Act  of  March  14,  1900,  intended  unequiv- 
ocally to  establish  gold  as  the  standard  money 
and  to  maintain  at  a parity  therewith  all  forms 
of  money  medium  in  use  with  us,  has  been  shown 
to  be  timely  and  judicious.  The  price  of  our 
Government  bonds  in  the  world’s  market,  when 
compared  with  the  price  of  similar  obligations  is- 
sued by  other  nations,  is  a flattering  tribute  to 
our  public  credit.  This  condition  it  is  evidently 
desirable  to  maintain. — Message  first  session  Fif- 
ty-seventh Congress,  [p.  554.] 


Our  Currency  Reliable 

The  integrity  of  our  currency  is  beyond  ques- 
tion, and  under  present  conditions  it  would  be 
unwise  and  unnecessary  to  attempt  a reconstruc- 
tion of  our  entire  monetary  system.  The  same 
liberty  should  be  granted  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  deposit  customs  receipts  as  is  granted 
him  in  the  deposit  of  receipts  from  other  sources. 
— Message  second  session  Fifty-eighth  Congress. 
[p.  655.] 


155 


Currency — M oney 


Currency  Needs  Greater  Elasticity 

In  many  respects  the  National  Banking  Law 
furnishes  sufficient  liberty  for  the  proper  exercise 
of  the  banking  function;  but  there  seems  to  be 
need  of  better  safeguards  against  the  deranging 
influence  of  commercial  crises  and  financial 
panics.  Moreover,  the  currency  of  the  country 
should  be  made  responsive  to  the  demands  of  our 
domestic  trade  and  commerce. — Message  first  ses- 
sion Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  554.] 


Stability  of  Interest  Rates  Demands  Greater 
Flexibility 

Interest  rates  are  a potent  factor  in  business 
activity,  and  in  order  that  these  rates  may  be 
equalized  to  meet  the  varying  needs  of  the  seasons 
and  of  widely  separated  communities,  and  to  pre- 
vent the  recurrence  of  financial  stringencies 
which  injuriously  affect  legitimate  business,  it  is 
necessary  that  there  should  be  an  element  of  elas- 
ticity in  our  monetary  system.  Banks  are  the 
natural  servants  of  commerce,  and  upon  them 
should  be  placed,  as  far  as  practicable,  the  bur- 
156 


Currency — Money 

den  of  furnishing  and  maintaining  a circulation 
adequate  to  supply  the  needs  of  our  diversified 
industries  and  of  our  domestic  and  foreign  com- 
merce ; and  the  issue  of  this  should  be  so  regu- 
lated that  a sufficient  supply  should  be  always 
available  for  the  business  interests  of  the  country. 

It  would  be  both  unwise  and  unnecessary  at  this 
time  to  attempt  to  reconstruct  our  financial  sys- 
tem, which  has  been  the  growth  of  a century ; but 
some  additional  legislation  is,  I think,  desirable. 
The  mere  outline  of  any  plan  sufficiently  compre- 
hensive to  meet  these  requirements  would  trans- 
gress the  appropriate  limits  of  this  communica- 
tion. It  is  suggested,  however,  that  all  future 
legislation  on  the  subject  should  be  with  the  view 
of  encouraging  the  use  of  such  instrumentalities  as 
will  automatically  supply  every  legitimate  de- 
mand of  productive  industries  and  of  commerce, 
not  only  in  the  amount  but  in  the  character  of 
circulation ; and  of  making  all  kinds  of  money  in- 
terchangeable, and,  at  the  will  of  the  holder,  con- 
vertible into  the  established  gold  standard. — Mes- 
sage second  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
617.] 


157 


Currency — M oney 


Great  Caution  Necessary  in  Handling  Financial 
Questions 

In  dealing  with  business  interests,  for  the  Gov- 
ernment to  undertake  by  crude  and  ill-considered 
legislation  to  do  what  may  turn  out  to  be  bad, 
would  be  to  incur  the  risk  of  such  far-reaching 
national  disaster  that  it  would  be  preferable  to 
undertake  nothing  at  all.  The  men  who  demand 
the  impossible  or  the  undesirable  serve  as  the 
allies  of  the  forces  with  which  they  are  nominally 
at  war,  for  they  hamper  those  who  would  en- 
deavor to  find  out  in  rational  fashion  what  the 
wrongs  really  are  and  to  what  extent  and  in  what 
manner  it  is  practicable  to  apply  remedies. — 
Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p. 
541.] 

Proper  Handling  of  Financial  Questions  Is  for 
the  Good  of  All  Alike 

It  is  not  true  that  as  the  rich  have  grown 
richer  the  poor  have  grown  poorer.  On  the  con- 
trary, never  before  has  the  average  man,  the 
wrage-worker,  the  farmer,  the  small  trader,  been 
so  well  off  as  in  this  country  and  at  the  present 
158 


Currency — M oney 

time.  There  have  been  abuses  connected  with  the 
accumulation  of  wealth ; yet  it  remains  true  that 
a fortune  accumulated  in  legitimate  business  can 
be  accumulated  by  the  person  specially  benefited 
only  on  condition  of  conferring  immense  inciden- 
tal benefits  upon  others.  Successful  enterprise, 
of  the  type  which  benefits  all  mankind,  can  only 
exist  if  the  conditions  are  such  as  to  offer  great 
prizes  as  the  rewards  of  success. — Message  first 
session  Fifty-Seventh  Congress,  [p.  538.] 

Financial  and  Industrial  Developments  Have 
Benefited  the  Whole  People 

This  well-being  is  due  to  no  sudden  or  acciden- 
tal causes,  but  to  the  play  of  economic  forces  in 
this  country  for  over  a century ; to  our  laws,  our 
sustained  and  continuous  policies;  above  all,  to  the 
high  individual  average  of  our  citizenship. 
Great  fortunes  have  been  won  by  those  who  have 
taken  the  lead  in  this  phenomenal  industrial  de- 
velopment, and  most  of  these  fortunes  have  been 
won,  not  by  doing  evil,  but  as  an  incident  to 
action  which  has  benefited  the  community  as  a 
whole.  Never  before  has  material  well-being  been 
so  widely  diffused  among  our  people.  Great 
159 


Currency — M oney 


fortunes  have  been  accumulated,  and  yet  in  the 
aggregate  these  fortunes  are  small  indeed  when 
compared  to  the  wealth  of  the  people  as  a whole. 
The  plain  people  are  better  off  than  they  have  ever 
been  before.  The  insurance  companies,  which  are 
practically  mutual  benefit  societies — especially 
helpful  to  men  of  moderate  means — represent  ac- 
cumulations of  capital  which  are  among  the 
largest  in  this  country.  There  are  more  deposits 
in  the  savings  banks,  more  owners  of  farms,  more 
well-paid  wage-workers  in  this  country  now  than 
ever  before  in  our  history.- — Message  second  ses- 
sion Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  608.] 

Interests  of  All  Will  Be  Best  Served  by  Treating 
the  Financial  Question  Conservatively 

Unquestionably  these  business  interests  will  best 
be  served  if  together  with  fixity  of  principle  as  re- 
gards the  tariff  we  combine  a system  which  will 
permit  us  from  time  to  time  to  make  the  necessary 
re-application  of  the  principle  to  the  shifting  na- 
tional needs.  We  must  take  scrupulous  care  that 
the  re-application  shall  be  made  in  such  a way  that 
it  will  not  amount  to  a dislocation  of  our  system, 
the  mere  threat  of  which  (not  to  speak  of  the  per- 
160 


Currency — M oney 

formance)  would  produce  paralysis  in  the  business 
energies  of  the  community. — Message  second  ses- 
sion Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  614.] 

Post  Office  Revenues  Show  the  General  Nature  of 
the  Financial  Activity 

The  striking  increase  in  the  revenues  of  the 
Post  Office  Department  shows  clearly  the  prosper- 
ity of  our  people  and  the  increasing  activity  of 
the  business  of  the  country. — Message  second  ses- 
sion Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  634.] 

Setbacks  May  Appear,  but  Our  Prosperity  Is  on  a 
Firm  Foundation 

There  will  undoubtedly  be  periods  of  depres- 
sion. The  wave  will  recede;  but  the  tide  will  ad- 
vance. This  nation  is  seated  on  a continent 
flanked  by  two  great  oceans.  It  is  composed  of 
men  the  descendants  of  pioneers,  or,  in  a sense, 
pioneers  themselves;  of  men  winnowed  out  from 
among  the  nations  of  the  Old  World  by  the 
energy,  boldness,  and  love  of  adventure  found  in 
their  own  eager  hearts.  Such  a nation,  so  placed, 
will  surely  wrest  success  from  fortune. — Message 
second  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  606.] 
161 


Currency — M oney 


America’s  New  Industrial  Ascendancy 

America  has  only  just  begun  to  assume  that 
commanding  position  in  the  international  business 
world  which  we  believe  will  more  and  more  be  hers. 
It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  this  position 
be  not  jeopardized,  especially  at  a time  when  the 
overflowing  abundance  of  our  own  natural  re- 
sources and  the  skill,  business  energy,  and  me- 
chanical aptitude  of  our  people  make  foreign 
markets  essential. — Message  first  session.  Fifty- 
seventh  Congress,  [p.  539.] 


We  All  Go  Up  or  Down  Together 

Moreover,  it  cannot  too  often  be  pointed  out 
that  to  strike  with  ignorant  violence  at  the  inter- 
ests of  one  set  of  men  almost  inevitably  endangers 
the  interests  of  all.  The  fundamental  rule  in  our 
national  life — the  rule  which  underlies  all  others 
— is  that,  on  the  whole,  and  in  the  long  run,  we 
shall  go  up  or  down  together.  There  are  excep- 
tions ; and  in  times  of  prosperity  some  will  pros- 
per far  more,  and  in  times  of  adversity  some  will 
suffer  far  more,  than  others : but  speaking  gen- 
162 


Cu  rrency — M oney 

erally,  a period  of  good  times  means  that  all  share 
more  or  less  in  them,  and  in  a period  of  hard 
times  all  feel  the  stress  to  a greater  or  less  degree. 
It  surely  ought  not  to  be  necessary  to  enter  into 
any  proof  of  this  statement;  the  memory  of  the 
lean  years  which  began  in  1893  is  still  vivid,  and 
we  can  contrast  them  with  the  conditions  in  this 
very  year  which  is  now  closing.  Disaster  to  great 
business  enterprises  can  never  have  its  effects  lim- 
ited to  the  men  at  the  top.  It  spreads  through- 
out, and  while  it  is  bad  for  everybody,  it  is  worst 
for  those  furthest  down.  The  capitalist  may  be 
shorn  of  his  luxuries,  but  the  wage-worker  may  be 
deprived  of  even  bare  necessities. — Message  first 
session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  540.] 


163 


BANKING  LAWS 


THE  Act  of  March  14,  1900,  intended  un- 
equivocally to  establish  gold  as  the  standard 
money  and  to  maintain  at  a parity  therewith  all 
forms  of  money  medium  in  use  with  us,  has  been 
shown  to  be  timely  and  judicious.  The  price  of 
our  government  bonds  in  the  world’s  market,  when 
compared  with  the  price  of  similar  obligations 
issued  by  other  nations,  is  a flattering  tribute  to 
our  public  credit.  This  condition  it  is  evidently 
desirable  to  maintain. 

In  many  respects  the  National  Banking  Law 
furnishes  sufficient  liberty  for  the  proper  exercise 
of  the  banking  function;  but  there  seems  to  be 
need  of  better  safeguards  against  the  deranging 
influence  of  commercial  crises  and  financial  panics. 
Moreover,  the  currency  of  the  country  should  be 
made  responsive  to  the  demands  of  our  domestic 
trade  and  commerce. — Message  first  session  Fifty - 
seventh  Congress,  [p.  554.] 


164 


ECONOMY 


In  Public  Affairs 

I CALL  special  attention  to  the  need  of  strict 
economy  in  expenditures.  The  fact  that  our 
national  needs  forbid  us  to  be  niggardly  in  pro- 
viding whatever  is  actually  necessary  to  our  well- 
being, should  make  us  doubly  careful  to  husband 
our  national  resources,  as  each  of  us  husbands  his 
private  resources,  by  scrupulous  avoidance  of  any- 
thing like  wasteful  or  reckless  expenditure.  Only 
by  avoidance  of  spending  money  on  what  is  need- 
less or  unjustifiable  can  we  legitimately  keep  our 
income  to  the  point  required  to  meet  our  needs  that 
are  genuine. — Message  first  session  Fifty-seventh 
Congress,  [p.  555.] 


165 


MISCELLANEOUS 

I HAVE  no  respect  for  the  man  who  will  put 
up  with  injustice.  If  a man  will  not  take 
his  part,  the  part  is  not  worth  taking. — Waukesha, 
Wis.,  A pi.  3,  1903.  [p.  269.] 

Many  qualities  are  needed  in  order  that  we  can 
contribute  our  mite  toward  the  upward  movement 
of  the  world — among  them  the  quality  of  self- 
abnegation,  and  yet  combined  with  it  the  quality 
which  will  refuse  to  submit  to  injustice.  I want 
to  preach  the  two  qualities  going  hand  in  hand. 
I do  not  want  a man  to  fail  to  try  to  strive  for  his 
own  betterment,  I do  not  want  him  to  be  quick  to 
yield  to  injustice;  I want  him  to  stand  for  his 
rights;  but  I want  him  to  be  very  certain  that  he 
knows  what  his  rights  are,  and  that  he  does  not 
make  them  the  wrongs  of  some  one  else. — Topeka, 
Kan.,  May  1,  1903.  [p.  358.] 

166 


Miscellaneous 


It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Congress  will  make 
liberal  appropriations  for  the  continuance  of  the 
service  already  established  and  for  its  further 
extension. — Message  second  session  of  Fifty-sev- 
enth Congress,  [p.  635.] 

There  are  many  qualities  which  we  need  alike  in 
private  citizen  and  in  public  man,  but  three  above 
all — three  for  the  lack  of  which  no  brilliancy  and 
no  genius  can  atone — and  those  three  are  courage, 
honesty,  and  common-sense. — Antietam,  Sept.  17, 
1903.  [p.  488.] 

This  is  not  and  never  shall  be  a government 
either  of  a plutocracy  or  of  a mob.  It  is,  it  has 
been,  and  it  will  be,  a government  of  the  people; 
including  alike  the  people  of  great  wealth  and  of 
moderate  weath,  the  people  who  employ  others,  the 
people  who  are  employed,  the  wage-worker,  the 
lawyer,  the  mechanic,  the  banker,  the  farmer;  in- 
cluding them  all,  protecting  each  and  every  one 
if  he  acts  decently  and  squarely,  and  discriminating 
against  any  one  of  them,  no  matter  from  what 
class  he  comes,  if  he  does  not  act  squarely  and 
fairly,  if  he  does  not  obey  the  law. — Spokane, 
Wash.,  May  36,  1903.  [p.  430.] 

167 


Miscellaneous 


In  every  instance  how  the  after  events  of  history 
have  falsified  the  predictions  of  the  men  of  little 
faith ! There  are  critics  so  feeble  and  so  timid  that 
they  shrink  back  when  this  Nation  asserts  that  it 
comes  in  the  category  of  the  nations  who  dare  to 
be  great,  and  they  want  to  know,  forsooth,  the 
cost  of  greatness  and  what  it  means. — Before 
Arctic  Brotherhood,  Seattle,  Wash.,  May  83, 
1903.  [p.  422.] 

It  is  curious  how  our  fate  as  a nation  has  often 
driven  us  forward  toward  greatness  in  spite  of  the 
protests  of  many  of  those  esteeming  themselves  in 
point  of  training  and  culture  best  fitted  to  shape 
the  Nation’s  destiny. — Before  Arctic  Brotherhood, 
Seattle,  Wash.,  May  23,  1903.  [p.  422.] 

Provision  should  be  made  to  enable  the  Secretary 
of  War  to  keep  cavalry  and  artillery  horses,  worn 
out  in  long  performance  of  duty.  Such  horses 
fetch  but  a trifle  when  sold ; and  rather  than  turn 
them  out  to  the  misery  awaiting  them  when  thus 
disposed  of,  it  would  be  better  to  employ  them  at 
light  work  around  the  posts,  and  when  necessary 
to  put  them  painlessly  to  death  .—Message  second 
session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  631.] 

168 


Miscellaneous 


On  the  face  of  the  papers  presented,  Miller  would 
appear  to  have  been  removed  in  violation  of  law. 
There  is  no  objection  to  the  employees  of  the  Gov- 
ernment Printing  Office  constituting  themselves 
into  a union  if  they  so  desire ; but  no  rules  or  reso- 
lutions of  that  union  can  be  permitted  to  override 
the  laws  of  the  United  States,  which  it  is  my  sworn 
duty  to  enforce. — Letter  to  Mr.  Cortelyou  from 
Oyster  Bay,  July  13,  1903.  [p.  520.] 


Wise  laws  and  fearless  and  upright  administra- 
tion of  the  laws  can  give  the  opportunity  for  such 
prosperity  as  we  see  about  us.  But  that  is  all  that 
they  can  do.  When  the  conditions  have  been  cre- 
ated which  make  prosperity  possible,  then  each 
individual  man  must  achieve  it  for  himself  by  his 
own  energy  and  thrift  and  business  intelligence. 
If  when  people  wax  fat  they  kick,  as  they  have 
kicked  since  the  days  of  Jeshurun,  they  will  speed- 
ily destroy  their  own  prosperity.  If  they  go  into 
wild  speculation  and  lose  their  heads  they  have 
lost  that  which  no  laws  can  supply.  If  in  a spirit 
of  sullen  envy  they  insist  upon  pulling  down  those 
who  have  profited  most  in  years  of  fatness,  they 
will  bury  themselves  in  the  crash  of  the  common 
169 


Miscellaneous 


disaster.  It  is  difficult  to  make  our  material  condi- 
tion better  by  the  best  laws,  but  it  is  easy  enough 
to  ruin  it  by  bad  laws. — Providence,  R.  I.,  Aug. 
23, 1902.  [p.  99.] 

In  accordance  with  a well-known  sociological  law, 
the  ignorant  or  reckless  agitator  has  been  the  really 
effective  friend  of  the  evils  which  he  has  been 
nominally  opposing.  In  dealing  with  business 
interests,  for  the  government  to  undertake  by  crude 
and  ill-considered  legislation  to  do  what  may  turn 
out  to  be  bad,  would  be  to  incur  the  risk  of  such  far- 
reaching  national  disaster  that  it  would  be  prefer- 
able to  undertake  nothing  at  all. — Message  first 
session  Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  541.] 

Remember  always  that  a man  who  does  a thing 
so  that  it  is  worth  doing  is  always  a man  who  does 
his  work  for  the  work’s  sake. — Banquet  to  Dr. 
Butler,  New  York,  Apl.  19,  1902.  [p.  31.] 

We  need  display  but  scant  patience  with  those 
who,  sitting  at  ease  in  their  own  homes,  delight  to 
exercise  a querulous  and  censorious  spirit  of  judg- 
ment upon  their  brethren  who,  whatever  their 
shortcomings,  are  doing  strong  men’s  work  as  they 
170 


Miscellaneous 


bring  the  light  of  civilization  into  the  world’s  dark 
places.  The  criticism  of  those  who  live  softly, 
remote  from  the  strife,  is  of  little  value;  but  it 
would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  value  of  the 
missionary  work  of  those  who  go  out  to  share  the 
hardship,  and,  while  sharing  it,  not  to  talk,  but 
to  wage  war  against  the  myriad  forms  of  brutality. 
— Board  of  Home  Missions,  New  York,  May  SO, 
1902.  [p.  46.] 

There  are  very  different  kinds  of  success.  There 
is  the  success  that  brings  with  it  the  seared  soul — 
the  success  which  is  achieved  by  wolfish  greed  and 
vulpine  cunning — the  success  which  makes  honest 
men  uneasy  or  indignant  in  its  presence.  Then 
there  is  the  other  kind  of  success — the  success  which 
comes  as  the  reward  of  keen  insight,  of  sagacity, 
of  resolution,  of  address,  combined  with  unflinching 
rectitude  of  behavior,  public  and  private.  The 
first  kind  of  success  may,  in  a sense — and  a poor 
sense  at  that — benefit  the  individual,  but  it  is  al- 
ways and  necessarily  a curse  to  the  community; 
whereas  the  man  who  wins  the  second  kind,  as  an 
incident  of  its  winning  becomes  a beneficiary  to  the 
whole  commonwealth. — Chamber  of  Commerce, 
New  York,  Nov.  11,  1902.  [p.  200.] 

171 


Miscellaneous 


He  is  a poor  creature  who  does  not  give  help 
generously  when  the  chance  comes.  But  finally  in 
the  last  resort  the  man  who  wins  now  will  be  the 
man  of  the  type  who  has  won  always,  the  man  who 
can  win  for  himself.  Do  not  make  the  mistake  of 
thinking  that  it  is  possible  ever  to  call  in  any  out- 
side force  to  take  the  place  of  the  man’s  own  indi- 
vidual initiative,  the  man’s  individual  capacity  to 
do  work  worth  doing. — Dalton,  Mass.,  Sept.  3, 
1903.  [p.  146.] 

However  wise  a policy  may  be  it  can  be  enforced 
only  if  the  people  of  the  State  believe  in  it. — Salt 
Lake  City,  May  39,  1903.  [p.  441.] 

No  great  destiny  ever  yet  came  to  a people  walk- 
ing with  their  eyes  on  the  ground  and  their  faces 
shrouded  in  gloom.  No  great  destiny  ever  yet  came 
to  a people  who  feared  the  future,  who  feared 
failure  more  than  they  hoped  for  success. — Span- 
ish War  Veterans,  Detroit,  Sept.  33,  1903.  [p. 

187.] 

Not  only  must  our  labor  be  protected  by  the 
tariff,  but  it  should  also  be  protected  so  far  as  it 
is  possible  from  the  presence  in  this  country  of  any 
laborers  brought  over  by  contract,  or  those  who, 
172 


Miscellaneous 


coming  freely,  yet  represent  a standard  of  living 
so  depressed  that  they  can  undersell  our  men  in 
the  labor  market  and  drag  them  to  a lower  level.  I 
regard  it  as  necessary,  with  this  end  in  view,  to  re- 
enact immediately  the  law  excluding  Chinese  labor- 
ers and  to  strengthen  it  wherever  necessary  in  order 
to  make  its  enforcement  entirely  effective. — Mes- 
sage first  session  Fifty -seventh  Congress.  [p. 
546.] 

And  remember,  you,  the  people  of  this  govern- 
ment by  the  people,  that  while  the  public  servant, 
the  legislator,  the  executive  officer,  the  judge,  are 
not  to  be  excused  if  they  fall  short  of  their  duty, 
yet  that  their  doing  their  duty  cannot  avail  unless 
you  do  yours.  In  the  last  resort  we  have  to  depend 
upon  the  jury  drawn  from  the  people  to  convict 
the  scoundrel  who  has  tainted  our  public  life ; and 
unless  that  jury  does  its  duty,  unless  it  is  backed 
by  the  public  sentiment  of  the  people,  all  the  work 
of  legislator,  of  executive  officer,  of  judicial  officer, 
is  for  naught.— Washington,  D.  C.,  Nov.  16, 
1903.  [p.  503.] 

One  feature  of  honesty  and  common-sense  com- 
bined is  never  to  promise  what  you  do  not  think 
173 


Miscellaneous 


you  can  perform,  and  then  never  fail  to  perform 
what  you  have  promised.  And  that  applies  in 
public  life  just  as  much  as  in  private  life. — Fitch- 
burg, Mass.,  Sept.  2,  190 2.  [p.  138.] 

A great  deal  can  be  accomplished  by  working 
each  for  all  and  all  for  each;  but  we  must  not 
forget  that  the  first  requisite  in  accomplishing  that 
is  that  each  man  should  work  for  others  by  working 
for  himself,  by  developing  his  own  capacity. — 
Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Firemen,  Chattanooga, 
Term.,  Sept.  8,  1902.  [p.  162.] 

We  ask  no  man’s  permission  when  we  require 
him  to  obey  the  law ; neither  the  permission  of  the 
poor  man  nor  yet  of  the  rich  man.  Least  of  all 
can  the  man  of  great  wealth  afford  to  break  the 
law,  even  for  his  own  financial  advantage;  for  the 
law  is  his  prop  and  support,  and  it  is  both  foolish 
and  profoundly  unpatriotic  for  him  to  fail  in 
giving  hearty  support  to  those  who  show  that  there 
is  in  very  fact  one  law,  and  one  law  only,  alike  for 
the  rich  and  the  poor,  for  the  great  and  the  small. 
— Syracuse  State  Fair,  Sept.  7,  1903.  [p.  474.] 

And  unfortunately  it  is  just  as  true  in  the  edu- 
cation of  children  as  in  everything  else,  that  it  is 
174 


Miscellaneous' 


almost  as  harmful  to  be  a virtuous  fool  as  a knave. 
— Minnesota  Legislature,  Apl.  1/.,  1903.  [p.  290.] 

In  our  own  country,  with  its  many-sided,  hurry- 
ing, practical  life,  the  place  for  cloistered  virtue  is 
far  smaller  than  is  the  place  for  that  essential 
manliness  which,  without  losing  its  fine  and  lofty 
side,  can  yet  hold  its  own  in  the  rough  struggle 
with  the  forces  of  the  world  about  us. — Northfield, 
Mass.,  Sept.  1,  1902.  [p.  134*.] 

When  outward  well-being,  instead  of  being  re- 
garded as  a valuable  foundation  on  which  happi- 
ness may  with  wisdom  be  built,  is  mistaken  for 
happiness  itself,  so  that  material  prosperity  be- 
comes the  one  standard,  then,  alike  by  those  who 
enjoy  such  prosperity  in  slothful  or  criminal  ease, 
and  by  those  who  in  no  less  evil  manner  rail  at, 
envy,  and  long  for  it,  poverty  is  held  to  be  shame- 
ful, and  money,  whether  well  or  ill  gotten,  to  stand 
for  merit. — Bangor,  Me.,  Aug.  27,  1902.  [p. 

133.] 

All  this  does  not  mean  condemnation  of  prog- 
ress. It  is  mere  folly  to  try  to  dig  up  the  dead 
past,  and  scant  is  the  good  that  comes  from  asceti- 
175 


Miscellaneous 


cism  and  retirement  from  the  world.  But  let  us 
make  sure  that  our  progress  is  in  the  essentials  as 
well  as  in  the  incidentals.  Material  prosperity  with- 
out the  moral  lift  toward  righteousness  means  a 
diminished  capacity  for  happiness  and  a debased 
character. — Bangor , Me.,  Aug.  27,  1902.  [p. 

133.] 

I ask  that  we  see  to  it  in  our  country  that  the 
line  of  division  in  the  deeper  matters  of  our  citizen- 
ship be  drawn,  never  between  section  and  section, 
never  between  creed  and  creed,  never,  thrice  never, 
between  class  and  class ; but  that  the  line  be  drawn 
on  the  line  of  conduct,  cutting  through  sections, 
cutting  through  creeds,  cutting  through  classes ; 
the  line  that  divides  the  honest  from  the  dishonest, 
the  line  that  divides  good  citizenship  from  bad 
citizenship,  the  line  that  declares  a man  a good 
citizen  only  if,  and  always  if,  he  acts  in  accordance 
with  the  immutable  law  of  righteousness. — Spo- 
kane, Wash.,  May  26,  1903.  [p.  431.] 

Indeed,  there  is  a revolting  injustice,  intolerable 
to  just  minds,  in  punishing  the  weak  scoundrel  who 
fails,  and  bowing  down  to  and  making  life  easy 
for  the  far  more  dangerous  scoundrel  who  succeeds. 
• — Northfield,  Mass.,  Sept.  1,  1902.  [p.  135.] 

176 


Miscellaneous 


In  every  governmental  process  the  aim  that  a 
people  capable  of  self-government  should  stead- 
fastly keep  in  mind  is  to  proceed  by  evolution 
rather  than  revolution. — Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  Sept. 
6,  1902.  [p.  148.] 

If  a man  is  not  decent,  is  not  square  and  honest, 
then  the  possession  of  ability  only  serves  to  render 
him  more  dangerous  to  the  community ; as  a wild 
beast  grows  more  dangerous  the  stronger  and 
fiercer  he  is. — Northfield,  Mass.,  Sept.  1,  1902. 
[p.  136.] 

But  virtue  by  itself  is  not  enough,  or  anything 
like  enough.  Strength  must  be  added  to  it,  and 
the  determination  to  use  that  strength.  The  good 
man  who  is  ineffective  is  not  able  to  make  his  good- 
ness of  much  account  to  the  people  as  a whole.  No 
matter  how  much  a man  hears  the  word,  small  is 
the  credit  attached  to  him  if  he  fails  to  be  a doer 
also;  and  in  serving  the  Lord  he  must  remember 
that  he  needs  to  avoid  sloth  in  his  business  as  well 
as  to  cultivate  fervency  of  spirit. — Northfield, 
Mass.,  Sept.  1,  1902.  [p.  136.] 

It  is  almost  as  irritating  to  be  patronized  as  to 
be  wronged. — Bangor,  Me.,  Aug.  27,  1902.  [p. 

130.] 


177 


Miscellaneous 


We  must  judge  a nation  by  the  net  result  of  its 
life  and  activity.  And  so  we  must  judge  the  poli- 
cies of  those  who  at  any  time  control  the  destinies 
of  a nation. — Union  League,  Philadelphia,  Nov.  22, 
1902.  [p.  213.] 

Of  course,  fundamentally  each  man  will  yet  find 
that  the  chief  factor  in  determining  his  success  or 
failure  in  life  is  the  sum  of  his  own  individual 
qualities. — Sioux  Falls,  S.  D.,  Apl.  6,  1903.  [p. 

306.] 

There  are  good  citizens  and  bad  citizens  in  every 
class  as  in  every  locality,  and  the  attitude  of  decent 
people  toward  great  public  and  social  questions 
should  be  determined,  not  by  the  accidental  ques- 
tions of  employment  or  locality,  but  by  those  deep- 
set  principles  which  represent  the  innermost  souls 
of  men. — Syracuse  State  Fair,  Sept.  7,  1903.  [p. 

469.] 

The  wounds  left  by  the  great  Civil  War,  incom- 
parably the  greatest  war  of  modem  times,  have 
healed ; and  its  memories  are  now  priceless  heritages 
of  honor  alike  to  the  North  and  to  the  South.  The 
devotion,  the  self-sacrifice,  the  steadfast  resolution 
178 


Miscellaneous 


and  lofty  daring,  the  high  devotion  to  the  right 
as  each  man  saw  it,  whether  Northerner  or  South- 
erner— all  these  qualities  of  the  men  and  women 
of  the  early  sixties  now  shine  luminous  and  brilliant 
before  our  eyes,  while  the  mists  of  anger  and  hatred 
that  once  dimmed  them  have  passed  away  forever. 
— Charleston  Exposition,  Apl.  9,  190 2.  [p.  19.] 


We  need  no  proof  of  the  completeness  of  our 
reunion  as  a people.  When  the  war  with  Spain 
came  the  sons  of  the  men  who  wore  the  blue  and 
the  sons  of  the  men  who  wore  the  gray  vied  with 
one  another  in  the  effort  to  get  into  the  ranks  and 
face  a foreign  foe  under  the  old  flag  that  had  been 
carried  in  triumph  under  Winfield  Scott  and 
Zachary  Taylor  and  Andrew  Jackson. — Banquet  to 
General  Wright,  Memphis,  Term.,  Nov.  19,  1902. 
[p.  203.] 


And  so  I think  I have  the  right  to  say  that, 
knowing  the  Southern  people  as  I do,  I would 
heartily  advocate  fighting  twice  as  hard  as  you 
fought  from  1861  to  1865  for  the  privilege  of 
staying  in  the  same  Union  with  them. — Banquet  to 
Justice  Harlan,  Dec.  9,  1902.  [p.  223.] 

179 


Miscellaneous 


The  true  line  of  cleavage  lies  between  good 
citizen  and  bad  citizen ; and  the  line  of  cleavage 
may,  and  often  does,  run  at  right  angles  to  that 
which  divides  the  rich  and  the  poor.  The  sinews 
of  virtue  lie  in  man’s  capacity  to  care  for  what  is 
outside  himself. 

The  man  who  lives  simply,  and  justly,  and  hon- 
orably, whether  rich  or  poor,  is  a good  citizen. — 
Bangor,  Me.,  Aug.  27,  1902.  [p.  132.] 

Hardness  of  heart  is  a dreadful  quality,  but  it  is 
doubtful  whether,  in  the  long  run,  it  works  more 
damage  than  softness  of  head. — Bangor,  Me.,  Aug. 
27, 1902.  [p.  131.] 


As  a people  we  have  played  a large  part  in  the 
world,  and  we  are  bent  upon  making  our  future 
even  larger  than  the  past.  In  particular,  the 
events  of  the  last  four  years  have  definitely  decided 
that,  for  woe  or  for  weal,  our  place  must  be  great 
among  the  nations.  We  may  either  fail  greatly 
or  succeed  greatly ; but  we  cannot  avoid  the  en- 
deavor from  which  either  great  failure  or  great 
success  must  come.  Even  if  we  would,  we  cannot 
play  a small  part.  If  we  should  try,  all  that 
180 


Miscellaneous 


would  follow  would  be  that  we  should  play  a large 
part  ignobly  and  shamefully— Message  second  ses- 
sion Fifty-seventh  Congress,  [p.  607.] 

Great  fortunes  have  been  won  by  those  who 
have  taken  the  lead  in  this  phenomenal  industrial 
development,  and  most  of  these  fortunes  have  been 
won,  not  by  doing  evil,  but  as  an  incident  to  action 
which  has  benefited  the  community  as  a whole. — 
Message  second  session  Fifty-seventh  Congress. 

[p.  608.] 

All  that  we  have  been  trying  to  do,  with  a cer- 
tain fair  amount  of  success,  through  legislation 
and  through  administration,  has  been  to  do  square 
and  equal  justice  between  man  and  man;  to  try 
to  give  every  man  a fair  chance,  to  try  to  secure 
good  treatment  for  him,  if  he  deserves  it,  be  he  rich 
or  poor,  and  to  try  to  see  that  he  does  not  wrong 
his  fellow.  After  all,  that  is  about  what  must  be 
the  essence  of  legislation  if  it  is  to  be  really  good 
legislation.  * * * 

It  is  meant  to  do  square  justice  to  each  man, 
big  or  little,  and  to  ensure,  as  far  as  by  legislation 
we  can  secure,  that  he  will  do  fair  justice  in  return. 
— Jamestown , N.  D.,  A pi.  7,  1903.  [p.  322.] 

181 


1 


308 


R781R0 


581346 


315008! 


